The US will resume the sale of some military equipment to Bahrain, the State Department announced Friday, whilst recognising "a number of serious unresolved human rights issues".
Speaking to The Washington Post, a senior official said,
“our desire to help the Bahrainis maintain their external defense capabilities, and a determination that it is in U.S. national interest to let these things go forward,”
US officials have declined to release a full list of equipment that will be approved for sale, however one official reportedly said items that “used against protesters in any scenario" would not be sold.
The listing of restrictions has sparked controversy however, with Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch describing it as "short-sighted", and a US senator, Sen. Ron Wyden, stating it was "exactly the wrong time to be selling arms to the government of Bahrain."
Wyden added,
“Things are getting worse, not better. . . . Reform is the ultimate goal and we should be using every tool and every bit of leverage we have to achieve that goal.”
The decision came a few days after Bahrain's crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa met with Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.
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