Merkel under fire over secret Saudi tank deal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo: Reuters

BERLIN: The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is facing growing criticism after news of a multibillion-dollar deal for the secret sale of 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia leaked from the national security council that approved it.
The German government has responded with what the media has called an ''iron silence'', which has fuelled rather than dampened the furore over a sale that experts estimate will be worth roughly $US2.5 billion ($2.3 billion)
Germany strained ties with its NATO allies when it abstained in the UN Security Council on the resolution authorising military action to protect Libyan civilians.

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Now the government has approved the shipment of the 68-ton tanks to Saudi Arabia, even as the image of Saudi tanks rolling into Bahrain to help suppress the protests there remains fresh in the public mind.
According to the website of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, which along with Rheinmetall, produces the tank, the latest version, the Leopard 2A7+, includes ''non-lethal capabilities.''
''A perfect tank to drive into Bahrain and crack down on any uprising,'' Jan Grebe, a researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conversion, a non-profit research institute that deals with security and development issues, said. ''It's also a good tank to fight any demonstrations in Riyadh.''
Members of Dr Merkel's own party have criticised the sale on human rights grounds.
The deal reveals the shifting Israeli attitude towards the Saudis. Israel has notably not complained about the arms deal, and government sources said it was cleared with the Americans and the Israelis.
Once viewed as a potential threat by Jerusalem, the regime in Saudi Arabia is increasingly viewed as a guarantor of stability in a region in upheaval, as revolutionary fervour sweeps through the Middle East.
''Every step that we take in the region, we take with the condition that it promotes the security and the right to exist of Israel,'' Philipp Missfelder, a foreign policy spokesman for Dr Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, said.
The sale could also be seen as an effort to placate the Saudis, who were infuriated this year when the US President, Barack Obama, sided with protesters in Egypt and helped to usher Hosni Mubarak from power and when NATO began its air campaign against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
The New York Times


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