Won't scramble jets to get a 29-year-old hacker: Obama

June 28, 2013 03:35

US President Barack Obama has said he would not start "wheeling and dealing" with China and Russia over a US request to extradite former American spy agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Speaking to reporters in Senegal's capital Dakar, where he started his three-country tour of Africa, Obama on Thursday said regular legal channels should suffice to handle the US request that Snowden, who left Hong Kong for Moscow, be returned.

Obama said he had not yet spoken to China's President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin on the issue.

"The reason is ... number one, I shouldn't have to. Number two, we've got a whole lot of business that we do with China and Russia, and I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues," the US President said.

Obama also dismissed suggestions that the US might try to intercept Snowden if he were allowed to depart Moscow by air and said he is not going to be "scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker".

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