In October, Germany announced a halt on all arms exports to Saudi Arabia
related to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. At the time, this
announcement was scoffed at, as Germany’s direct exports to Saudi Arabia
are comparatively small.
In retrospect, this was a lot more than just a symbolic measure,
as a number of European companies are starting to warn that the German
ban is impacting some of their major sales, because they involved
products that contain German-made parts.
Germany’s reach is far greater than expected. Eurofighteer Typhoon
warplanes are partly produced in Germany. Certain air-to-air missiles
the Saudis want are also unavailable, as they are produced by an Airbus
subsidiary, and Airbus is partly owned by the German government.
It could also impact past sales, as the Saudis have a lot of
European-made fighters, and those fighters may need replacement parts,
but many of those parts have German-made components.
Germany’s Ban on Arms Exports to Saudis Over Khashoggi Murder Have Growing Impact
Ban on German parts are limiting sales by other European companies
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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