Yahoo! News, Aug. 5, 2011
Source: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials and their counterparts in Bahrain, which crushed month-long protests in mid-March, have renewed a defense pact, officials said Friday.
The two countries inked a 10-year defense agreement on October 28, 1991, seven months after the Gulf War, that was renewed in October 2001 for the same duration.
As early as 2002, the administration of former US president George W. Bush and the Bahraini regime secretly extended the accord for another five years, to 2016, The Washington Post reported. But Pentagon officials declined to confirm those dates to AFP.
A US official who requested anonymity, however, said that “it would be accurate to say that it goes beyond that date” of October 2011.
Yet the official cautioned that: “Obviously, it’s a very delicate situation over there right now, so you never know what could change.”
Continues >>
Source: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials and their counterparts in Bahrain, which crushed month-long protests in mid-March, have renewed a defense pact, officials said Friday.
The two countries inked a 10-year defense agreement on October 28, 1991, seven months after the Gulf War, that was renewed in October 2001 for the same duration.
As early as 2002, the administration of former US president George W. Bush and the Bahraini regime secretly extended the accord for another five years, to 2016, The Washington Post reported. But Pentagon officials declined to confirm those dates to AFP.
A US official who requested anonymity, however, said that “it would be accurate to say that it goes beyond that date” of October 2011.
Yet the official cautioned that: “Obviously, it’s a very delicate situation over there right now, so you never know what could change.”
Continues >>
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