Islam Times - Snowden’s asylum could take months: Ecuador FM

Islam Times - Ecuador’s foreign minister has said it could take months for his government to decide whether to grant asylum to American whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Ricardo Patino also drew a parallel on Wednesday between Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was granted asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London last year.

Patino said Ecuador took "two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner this time."

Ecuador said on Wednesday that the United States must "submit its position" regarding Edward Snowden in writing.

In a statement from its embassy in the United States, Ecuador said it would examine Snowden’s asylum request “responsibly” and weigh “human rights obligations.”

Snowden is currently in a transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport where he arrived after leaving Hong Kong on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Tuesday that Moscow would not extradite Snowden to the United States.

Patino confirmed a day earlier that Ecuador is considering a request for asylum by Snowden.

Meanwhile, Washington has reportedly revoked Snowden’s passport, with State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, saying the fugitive “should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the US.”

In the beginning of June, Snowden leaked two top secret US government spying programs under which the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

Several US government officials including President Obama and FBI director Robert Mueller have defended the secret spying programs claiming that they are essential to the fight against terrorism.