Agencies/Washington

Shia Bahraini women wave the Bahraini flag and shout anti-government slogans during a rally held by the Wefaq opposition party in the village of Boori, south of Manama, yesterday to mark eight months since the February 14 uprising
The US held out the possibility yesterday it may not sell $53mn in arms to Bahrain, saying it had not made a final decision to transfer the materiel and human rights would weigh in its assessment.
The Pentagon on September 14 notified Congress of its intent to sell more than 44 armoured Humvees and 300 TOW missiles to Bahrain, whose crackdown on a popular uprising this year has prompted some US lawmakers to oppose the sale.
“This is a notification about future intent,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. “We will continue to take human rights into consideration as we make future decisions about this.”
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative James McGovern, both Democrats, have introduced resolutions in Congress to prevent the sale “until meaningful steps are taken to improve human rights” there.
About 30 people, mainly Shias, died when the protest movement erupted in February, but ongoing clashes and deaths in police custody have taken the total past 40, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
Bahraini opposition groups called in a new declaration on Wednesday for an elected government and for ending discrimination against the country’s Shia majority.
The crackdown saw authorities sweep through Shia villages, arresting hundreds, and scores were dismissed from their jobs.
Hundreds are being tried by a special security court, and dozens more have received lengthy jail sentences, while at least five were sentenced to death.
“Proceeding with the announced arms sale to Bahrain without modification under the current circumstances weakens US credibility at a critical time of political transition in the Middle East,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a letter on Thursday.
It is relatively rare for US lawmakers to oppose such arms sales because they are typically vetted with Congress before they become public.
Prime contractors for the arms sale would be AM General and Raytheon Co, according to the Defence Security Co-operation Agency, the part of the Pentagon that oversees foreign arms sales.