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| US Congress urged to prevent sale of attack helicopters to Bahrain |
| 2018-05-03 |
| [PRESSTV] A human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... group has called upon the US Congress to block the sale of combat helicopters and aircraft missiles to Bahrain in the wake of the ruling Al Khalifah regime’s heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners and political dissidents in the tiny Persian Gulf country. "It is simply absurd that the Trump administration has decided to effectively reward the Bahraini military for violating international law ‐ right after the State Department itself reported on a widespread human rights crisis in Bahrain," Husain Abdullah, the executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, said in a statement released on Wednesday. The Pentagon, in a statement released last Friday, announced that the US State Department had approved the possible sale of attack helicopters to Bahrain for an estimated cost of $911 million. Bahrain has reportedly requested attack helicopters AH-1Z, replacement engines, AGM-114 and APKWS II missiles, as well as radars, communications systems and other equipment. The Pentagon has delivered the required certification notice to the Congress. The congressmen have 30 days to block the deal. Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011. |
| Posted by:Fred |