Foreign Minister Baerbock is met with criticism with her statement about a possible delivery of Eurofighter fighter jets to Saudi Arabia – including within her own party.
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, reacted cautiously to the possible opening to supply Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia. “Anyone who exports the Eurofighter to Saudi Arabia must also immediately deliver the Taurus to Ukraine,” said the FDP politician to the German Press Agency in Berlin. “Security policy also needs a values compass.”
According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the federal government is open to supplying the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. By intercepting rockets fired at Israel by the Yemeni Houthis, the country is contributing to Israel’s security and preventing a conflagration in the region, the Green politician said on Sunday in Israel. “That’s precisely why we don’t see ourselves as the German federal government opposing British considerations for additional Eurofighters for Saudi Arabia.”
The fighter jets are a European joint project in which Germany is involved and therefore has veto rights over export decisions. They are manufactured in Great Britain, which would be ready to deliver to Saudi Arabia.
The Taurus is one of the Air Force’s most modern missiles, which Ukraine has been hoping to deliver for a long time. The weapons find their target even from great heights and distances and can destroy bunkers, for example. At the beginning of October, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) decided not to deliver any Taurus cruise missiles for the time being. The fear behind this was that Russian territory could also be hit by the precision weapons with a range of 500 kilometers.
Scholz open to fighter jet deliveries to Saudi Arabia
According to his spokesman, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) shares the openness of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to deliveries of Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia. “Yes, the Chancellor shares this assessment,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin.
Saudi Arabia has been taking “a very constructive stance” towards Israel since October 7, said Hebestreit. On that day, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel. These did not achieve their goal of preventing Saudi Arabia from rapprochement with Israel. “The Saudi Arabian Air Force, including with Eurofighters, shot down Houthi rockets that were on their way to Israel. And in the light of all these developments, the Federal Government’s positioning with regard to the Eurofighters must be seen. And that is narrow coordinated within the federal government.”
Criticism from the Greens
Green politicians have criticized the traffic light government’s apparent about-face to stop stopping the delivery of Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia. Green Party leader Ricarda Lang said on RBB Inforadio that the situation has changed since the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel, “because Saudi Arabia is taking on a different role than many would have expected years ago, and here also supports Israel”.
However, in view of the human rights situation and the internal state of Saudi Arabia, she still believes that a delivery of Eurofighters is wrong. “I think it would be right if we stick to the position that no Eurofighters will be delivered to Saudi Arabia.”
The defense policy spokeswoman for the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Sara Nanni, reminded the “Spiegel” (Monday) that the federal government had committed itself in the summer not to deliver any Eurofighters to the country. This happened for good reasons. “I expect the federal government to stick with it. It was less than five years ago that the Saudi-led alliance bombed Yemen on a large scale.” Future Saudi wars would look similar.
Sharp criticism from Dagdelen
Bundestag member Sevim Dagdelen has sharply criticized a possible delivery of Eurofighter fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. “The delivery of the Eurofighter to Saudi Arabia is a political and moral oath of revelation by the federal government,” said the politician from the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance to the German Press Agency in Berlin.
“The credibility of the traffic light has fallen to a low point,” criticized Dagdelen. “The fatal decision is also massive electoral fraud, and the unworthy attempts at justification don’t help.”
Source: Stern
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