Resistance to arms exports to Saudi Arabia: "Where war is waged, no German weapons belong"

The attack on oil installations in Saudi Arabia causes a dispute among politicians of the CDU and SPD. The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt, demanded an end to the arms export stop in the country. The self-protection of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates lay in the stability interest of Germany, he told the editorial network Germany (RND). The demand causes incomprehension, especially with the SPD.

"The Union seems to be losing some of the foreign policy compass, and nothing has changed since the decision of the Federal Security Council at the end of March on the situation in Saudi Arabia," said SPD party leader Sören Bartol den RND.

The murder of Khashoggi is still not cleared up. The peace negotiations would not start. "Where war is conducted, there are no German weapons." The export stop to Saudi Arabia must be extended.

Embargo after kashoggi murder

The arms export stop to Saudi Arabia expires on September 30th. He was arrested last fall after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul. The export embargo was eased slightly in March, only for supplies to joint projects with Allies.

At the weekend, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed to be attacking the Saudi Arabian oil facilities. The Houthis had taken control of large areas of the Yemen in 2014, including the capital Sana'a. Saudi Arabia is leading a military alliance that fights the Houthis in Yemen with air strikes. The Sunni kingdom sees the rebels as a close ally of its Shiite arch rival Iran. The Houthis regularly attack Saudi Arabia with drones and rockets.

"Completely wrong step"

The Greens in the Bundestag also reject the resumption of arms exports demanded by the Union. "It is crazy, given the escalation in the Gulf, the risks there with further arms exports even more to increase," said the Green Defense Minister Agnieszka Brugger the news agency dpa. "At the same time, nothing has changed in the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and the bloody war in Yemen, and there is certainly no reason to demand exports of military equipment to Saudi Arabia."

Greens foreign policy leader Omid Nouripour said that lifting the arms export ban against Saudi Arabia and other Yemen warriors would be a "completely wrong step". The military action of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen and Libya destabilizes the region and is therefore incompatible with German strategic interests.