Germany's SPD Wants to Extend Saudi Arms Export Freeze

Germany's SPD Wants to Extend Saudi Arms Export Halt Despite UK-French Pressure (excerpt)

BERLIN --- The Social Democrats, junior partners in Germany’s ruling coalition, want to extend a freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia beyond March 9, despite pressure by Britain and France not to do so and a risk of costly compensation claims.

Rolf Muetzenich, SPD deputy leader in parliament, said his party would fight to maintain the halt in shipments of already approved weapons deals with Riyadh that Berlin imposed in November over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“We will push to continue the halt in arms exports to Saudi Arabia beyond the March 9 deadline, since the reasons for the imposition of the moratorium have not changed,” Muetzenich wrote in an essay published on Monday in the SPD newspaper Vorwaerts.

The SPD and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives agreed in November to reject licences for future arms exports to Saudi Arabia, a major buyer, and set a temporary moratorium on deliveries of previously approved kit that lasts till March 9.

Last week, Merkel declined to say whether the freeze would be extended.

Britain and France have urged Germany to exempt big defence projects from its moratorium on arms sales to Saudi Arabia or face damage to its commercial credibility.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders, whose company builds components for aircraft and missiles affected by the arms freeze, said the SPD’s stance would harm Germany above all.

“Mr. Muetzenich’s and the SPD’s view on foreign and security policy is totally inconsistent, torpedoes Franco-German defence cooperation and isolates Germany in Europe,” he told Reuters. (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on the Reuters website.

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