WASHINGTON: The White House said on Friday it would delay the release of long-classified documents related to the assassination of US President John F Kennedy.
President Joe Biden wrote in a statement that the remaining files "shall be withheld from full public disclosure" until December 15 next year -- nearly 60 years after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas in 1963.
In 2018, former president Donald Trump released several thousand secret files on the assassination, but withheld others on national security grounds.
The White House said the national archivist needs more time for a review into that redaction, which was slowed by the pandemic.
Biden also said the delay was "necessary to protect against identifiable harm to the military defence, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations" and that this "outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure."
The assassination of the 46-year-old president was a "profound national tragedy" that "continues to resonate in American history and in the memories of so many Americans who were alive on that terrible day," the statement said.
A 10-month investigation led by then-Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who had lived in the Soviet Union, acted alone when he fired on Kennedy's motorcade.
But the Commission's investigation was criticised for being incomplete, with a Congressional committee later concluding that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
US law requires that all government records on the assassination be disclosed "to enable the public to become fully informed."
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed strengthening European defenses in a telephone call on Friday, the White House said as Washington seeks to mend ties after a bitter row over subMarine contracts.
The two leaders "discussed efforts to enable a stronger and more capable European defense while ensuring complementarity with Nato," the statement said.
Biden will meet Macron in Rome later this month, and the statement said he looked forward to the chance to "take stock of the many areas of US-France cooperation, and reinforce our shared interests."
The two last spoke on September 22 for their first conversation since the furious spat over selling submarines to Australia severely strained relations.
Specifically, Australia agreed to acquire US nuclear sub technology and in doing so scrap a huge, already existing deal with France to buy conventional submarines. The new accord infuriated the French.
Macron recalled France's ambassador to Washington and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian compared Biden's unilateral methods to ex-president Donald Trump's but "without the tweets."
Although Biden did not apologize for secretly negotiating to sell nuclear submarines to Australia, he did acknowledge that the issue "would have benefited from open consultations among allies," according to a statement afterward.
US officials have since sought to patch up ties, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visiting Paris earlier this month and holding a one-to-one meeting with Macron.
In their September call, Macron secured what he saw as a significant commitment from Biden to respect French-led efforts to boost European defense and autonomy.
US Vice President Kamala Harris will also hold talks with Macron in Paris next month, the White House announced. - AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
