Merkel gov't facing political heat over controversial Saudi tank deal
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, July 6, IRNA -- The German government is facing fierce criticism over the reported sale of up to 200 Leopard combat tanks to the authoritarian Saudi regime.
Although Berlin has refused to either confirm or deny the deal, citing confidentiality, the multi-billion weapon sale has sent shockwaves across Germany, leading to strong protests among all major parties, churches and peace organizations.
The issue has even led the parliament to call in an emergency session to debate the sale of 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia.
At the heart of what many German politicians view as 'scandal' is the fact that Germany is exporting arms to the volatile Persian Gulf area as the German Constitution bars the sale of weapons to crisis-hit regions.
Furthermore, there are also serious fears Riyadh could use these tanks to crush internal uprisings in its own country or in neighboring Bahrain where Saudi troops played a lead role in cracking down on peaceful protests in recent months.
German opposition legislators have openly accused Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of hypocrisy for their alleged support of pro-freedom demonstrators.
Talking to the daily Welt newspaper, the deputy head of the Social Democratic faction (SPD), Gernot Erler said,'This exposes Merkel and Westerwelle's vocal support for the pro-democracy movement in the Arab world as mere lip service.'
The head of the opposition party The Left Gregor Gysi called the tank sale an 'unbelievable scandal.'
The chairwoman of the opposition Greens Claudia Roth joined the chorus of general criticism by saying the deal violated export guidelines.
The controversial sale has also caused a rift within Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and her junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP).
More than half of the CDU faction are reportedly against the arms sale to the Saudi kingdom, according to the daily Welt.
Meanwhile, the former chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Gerhardt said it was unacceptable to send the MPs into the summer break without getting any information on the tank deal.
Germany's Catholic and Protestant churches have also lashed out at the secret nature of the arms sale, saying German weapons do not belong in crisis regions.
They also held the German government partially responsible for human rights violations by sending arms to dictatorial regimes like Saudi Arabia.
The sentiment was shared by the German peace movement which branded the deal a 'catastrophe' for the Persian Gulf region.
It stressed Saudi Arabia was 'one of the worst regimes' in the Middle East.
The fear that the German tanks could be deployed by the fundamentalist Riyadh regime to suppress internal rebellions was highlighted by a prominent German expert on Saudi Arabia who said the tanks could be stationed in eastern Saudi Arabia to combat a likely Shia insurgency.
Guido Steinberg of the Berlin-based German Institute for International Politics and Security (SWP) warned this was a 'great danger.'
What is extremely troublesome to political observers in the German capital is the fact Saudi Arabia has become a very important recipient of German weapons in recent years.
Arms exports to Saudi Arabia totaled more than 440 million euros between 2006-2009.
German hi-tech military gadgetry to the Arabian country included airplanes, spare parts for fighter jets, missile parts, refueling aircraft, grenades, sea mine removal instruments and communication systems.
German human rights and peace groups point out that the wide-scale military cooperation with Riyadh which includes training of Saudi military personnel, has basically led to the loss of German credibility in pushing the human rights agenda in the Near and Middle East as this proved to be nothing more than empty words.
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