German government to subsidize sale of sixth submarine for Israel
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, July 17, IRNA -- German tax payers are to foot part of the bill for the highly controversial sale of a sixth submarine to Israel, the Hamburg-based news magazine Der Spiegel said in a report on Sunday.
The German government is to allocate 135 million euros from next year's defense budget to pay for the Dolphin-class submarine, estimated to cost aroud 500 million euros.
The deal was apparently sealed during the latest Israel visit of German Defense Minister Thomas de Maziere.
Germany is already paying one-third of the one billion euro price tag for the fourth and fifth Dolphin submarine which are currently still being built for Israel.
Berlin subsidized also the first three submarines which it delivered to Israel in 1999 and 2000, having paid around 550 million euros (1.1 million D-Mark).
Germany has played a major role in arming the Israeli navy over the past 12 years.
The German government has kept silent on its military deals with the Zionist regime, refusing to reveal any details of the contract.
A hardline supporter of Israel, Germany, has become a major arms supplier of the illegal Jewish state despite a constitutional ban to send arms to crisis regions.
There are no official statistics available on the sale of German weapons to Israel as almost all arms exports to the Zionist regime are shrouded in extreme secrecy.
German arms deliveries to Israel between 1998 and 2001 reached reportedly around 900 million US dollars.
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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30480284
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