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News ID: 45413
Publish Date : 18 October 2017 - 20:56

Bahrain Signs $3.8bn F-16 Fighter Jet Deal With U.S.




MANAMA (Dispatches) – Bahrain has concluded a $3.8-billion deal with a U.S. aerospace and military equipment giant to purchase 16 upgraded F-16 fighter jets.
The Bahrain Defense Force announced it signed the agreement with Lockheed Martin during a military exhibition in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom, AFP reported.
The State Department had informed Congress in March that it planned to approve a request by Manama to purchase the fighter jets.
The U.S. multi-billion dollar arms deal with Bahrain, which is home to America’s Fifth Fleet, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has eased restrictions on arms sales to certain countries including Bahrain.
In September, Reuters cited an unidentified U.S. official as saying that the $3.8-billion agreement was a package arms deal, which included 19 F-16 fighter jets, upgrades, 35-meter patrol boats equipped with machine guns, and 221 anti-tank missiles.
The U.S. State Department removed human rights conditions on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain after U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May that Washington’s relations with Manama were set to improve. The announcement came after Trump met Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah during a visit to Saudi Arabia.
The deal comes as the Manama regime has been under fire by the international community for its heavy-handed crackdown on dissidents and political activists.
Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s ruthless clampdown, which has the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
They are demanding that the ruling Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Meanwhile, a court in Bahrain has upheld 15-year jail terms handed down to four citizens and revoked their citizenship as the Manama regime relentlessly continues with its crackdown on human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
On Tuesday, Bahrain’s Court of Appeal found the defendants guilty of collaborating with a foreign country, establishing and joining a terrorist group, training in the use of weapons and explosives, and importing munitions and explosives, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.
The same court upheld 15-year jail terms against seven anti-regime activists on September 28, after finding them guilty of killing a member of security forces and setting his patrol car ablaze with a Molotov cocktail during clashes in the village of Karzakan, located 20 kilometers southwest of the capital Manama, on December 17, 2015.
The court also pressed charges of illegal gathering and rioting in addition to possession of flammable materials against the convicts, and ordered them to pay 10,200 dinars ($27,835) altogether over damage inflicted on regime forces during the protest.