FRAU MERKEL SAYS NEIN TO ISRAEL’S REQUEST FOR NAVAL AID
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Germany_rejects_Israel_bid_for_naval_aid_-_report.html?cid=18020178
Germany rejects Israel bid for naval aid – report
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has turned down Israel’s bid to buy a sixth naval submarine, two warships and torpedoes from it at deep German discounts, the U.S. journal Defence News reported.
The decision was conveyed to an Israeli Defence delegation in Berlin on July 7, effectively ending a year of negotiations that Israel had hoped would yield German subsidies of up to one-third on the total price of $1.6 billion (1.0 billion pounds).
“Germany is now grappling with a bad economic situation,” Udi Shani, director-general of Israel’s Defence Ministry, told the latest edition of Defence News. “We understand they can’t assist us, which means we have to do a reassessment.”
An Israeli Defence official confirmed that Shani had been in Berlin on July 7, and while declining to discuss the Defence News report directly, described the visit as “dispiriting.”
Israel would find it extremely hard to buy the naval vessels without German subsidies, especially having decided last week to trim its Defence budget by 5 percent in 2011 and in 2012.
The German government, which rarely talks publicly about Defence deals, denied it had been holding talks with Israel on subsidising the purchase of new naval vessels.
“There are no negotiations between Israel and Germany about submarines,” government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
Signalling strategic reach to foes like Iran, Israel has three of the Dolphin diesel submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles. Another two are on order from Kiel shipyard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) and due by 2012.
Dolphins cost some $700 million (459 million pounds) but those in Israel’s fleet were extensively underwritten by Germany, which is devoted to the security of the Jewish state founded after the Holocaust.
Israel had hoped for similar subsidies on two Meko corvettes, built at ThyssenKrupp’s Blohm+Voss shipyards in Hamburg. HDW is a branch of ThyssenKrupp.
German opposition parties, including the Social Democrats (SPD), have recently voiced misgivings about weapons exports to crisis areas, but the last two Dolphin sales were approved while the SPD was part of a previous coalition government.
Germany has been unusually direct in criticising Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, prompting the general secretary of Germany’s Central Council of Jews to say this month that political ties between the two states had hit a historic low.
(Writing by Dan Williams and Dave Graham; editing by Myra MacDonald)
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