According to the "Welt am Sonntag" (WamS) newspaper, a 180-page Economy Ministry report to be submitted to the cabinet on Wednesday itemized 7.8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in German arms exports.
That was almost double the 4 billion euros in German arms exported in 2014 and somewhat more than a 7.5 billion-euro estimate given in February.
Qatar, a Gulf Arab state panned by German opposition parties as an alleged source of funding for the "Islamic State" (IS) terror militia, received combat tanks and heavy artillery, as well as ammunition and accompanying vehicles worth 1.6 billion euros.
Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who heads the Social Democrats, had tried to stop the delivery to Qatar but was outvoted by other ministers on Germany's Federal Security Council. [...]
Germany's sales to Saudi Arabia, which such groups also criticized, was to a large extent funneled through joint delivery programs run with other nations, especially France, according to the report cited by WamS.
No comments:
Post a Comment