Washington has finalised a $53 million weapons package for Bahrain to help protect it from foreign aggression, a top US diplomat revealed yesterday.

The deal, which includes armoured Humvees and missiles, had drawn criticism after some wrongly claimed they could be used against Bahraini civilians.

However, US deputy assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Gulf, Stephen Seche, revealed that the sale would go through as part of an initiative to defend Bahrain from attack by rogue states, with tensions increasing across the region following revelations of an Iranian attempt to assassinate a Saudi ambassador on US soil.

'Congress has expressed no opposition to this sale,' said Seche, who holds the rank of ambassador in the US State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, during a roundtable meeting at the US Embassy in Zinj yesterday.

He described Bahrain as a key partner and warned the US would respond to any threats from Iran. – TradeArabia News Service