Germany To Sell armored vehicles, grenade launchers to Saudi, Other Arab States

Germany has approved deliveries of tanks, grenade launchers and machine guns to several Arab countries, according to a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The report yesterday stated that weapons are to be delivered to countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Algeria. Jordan, Oman and Kuwait.

The major arms that are in the export list include Dingo and Fennec  armored vehicles made by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann  to Qatar and   armored track vehicles Pionier panzer and bison vehicles to Algeria. Saudi Arabia gets grenade launcher systems, Waffenrustsatz remote controlled weapon stations and reconnaissance and observation systems.UAE will get machine guns, mortar grenade detonators and ammunition. Jordan will get automatic machine guns. Kuwait and Oman will receive grenade, machine guns and automatic rifles for testing.

The value of weapons exports to countries in the Gulf region rose to 1.42 billion euros ($1.88 billion) last year according to the newspaper.

The potential export has come in for sharp criticism by opposition parties in Germany who are opposed to arms transfer to countries in the Persian Gulf allegedly supporting the ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq.