The Trump administration has told Congress it plans to approve a multibillion-dollar sale of F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain without the human rights conditions imposed by the State Department under President Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump's administration has informed Congress of its plan to pursue the $5 billion sale to Bahrain of 19 Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft and related equipment, which was held up last year by concerns about human rights, a congressional source said on Wednesday.

The United Arab Emirates summoned the Swiss ambassador on Sunday to denounce a statement Switzerland made to the United Nations Human Rights Council the week prior criticizing fellow Gulf state Bahrain's human rights record.

Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Minister Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa met the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York.

My challenge is clear to the authorities. The opposition wants dialogue and has consistently said this on a regular basis for the past six years.

Addressing the situation in Bahrain, Gulf affairs expert, Bill Law, quoted “an old Bahraini friend” of his, stating that “it is bad, very bad. Everyone has lost hope. No one sees any way out.”

Bahrain's parliament has invited the U.N. human rights chief to visit and promised him unrestricted access to prisons and Shi'ite villages, local media said on Wednesday, following his criticism of the kingdom's record.

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) launched a petition online calling on US citizens to ask congress representatives to demand that Trump administration stops the recently announced weapons sale to Bahraini government.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) said it is deeply concerned about the recent alarming increase in the use of incommunicado detention by the Bahraini authorities.

A prominent Bahraini doctor jailed for five years in connection with the 2011 Arab Spring uprising for democracy was released from prison on Friday, a lawyer and witness said.

US magazine “Newsweek” said that rights groups condemned on Monday the decision of the Bahraini Parliament a day earlier to approve military trials for civilians as a “disaster for human rights” in the Gulf Kingdom.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued Royal Order 17/2017 specifying the terms and conditions for appointment of members of the National Institution of Human Rights (NIHR) board of commissioners.

Labour MP in House of Commons of the United Kingdom Emily Thornberry asked the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, on March 6, 2017, about the UK Government's policy regarding the proposed Swiss statement at the UN Human Rights Council on Bahrain; and if he is to issue a statement.

Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, criticized the increasing repression exercised by the authorities in Bahrain since June 2016.

A number of human rights groups denounced in the strongest possible terms “the Government of Bahrain’s efforts to dissolve Wa’ad and to systematically dismantle the country’s independent political space.”

Bahrain Justice ministry files lawsuit to dissolve Wa’ad society, while parliament approves constitutional change allowing military courts to try civilians amid fresh crackdown on dissent and human rights.

US State Department released its annual report for 2016 on Human rights. In its country report on Bahrain, it shed light on the continued societal discrimination against the Shia citizens, and worsening human rights problems.

Former Bahraini MP for the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Ali al-Aswad, said that the constitutional amendment that was recently approved by the National Assembly, primarily targets “dissidents and human rights defenders, and not those accused of terrorism-linked cases.”

Brian Dooley, director of the Human Rights Defenders program in Human Rights First, said in an article he published in the Huffington Post newspaper that President Trump’s assaults on the media, attacks on refugee rights, reports that his administration is considering withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, and his increasing chumminess with dictators are all alarming signs for human rights defenders hoping for support from Washington.

The Office of Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) hosted a panel at the Russell US Senate Office Building on the sixth anniversary of Bahrain’s pro-democracy uprising.