The German Parliament has approved the transfer of a submarine to Israel, the latest in a set of three the Germans have been building for the Israeli navy.
The $630 million total price tag for two of the submarines will be covered by the German government, with the cost of the third to be shared jointly by Israel and Germany, said Helmut Schaeffer, secretary of state in the German Foreign Ministry.
He said a deal to provide Israel with submarines had been worked out in 1989. But after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he said, Germany agreed to cover the cost of two vessels.
Schaeffer said the decision to give Israel two of the submarines was a sign of appreciation for Israeli restraint during the Gulf War, when Israel refrained from responding to Iraqi Scud missile attacks.
Schaeffer also attributed the gift to the German government’s embarrassment at the fact that German companies were involved in the development of chemical- warfare capabilities in Iraq.
In New York, Gideon Mark, consul for communications and public affairs at the Israeli Consulate, confirmed the details of the submarine transfer to Israel.
He said the submarines are due to arrive in israel about 1997.
In Parliament, Norbert Gansel of the opposition Social Democrat Party questioned whether the decision to sell Israel the third submarine was an attempt to cover up secret arms transactions on the part of the German government to adversaries of Israel.
Although Schaeffer denied that Germany had at any time approved such sales, he admitted that some German companies had been involved in illegal transactions were no longer taking place.
Germany boasts of having one of the “strictest control measures” against illegal sales of arms, he said.
Meanwhile, at a Parliament session, Heinrich Kolb, secretary of state at the Minister of Economics, was asked about the possible involvement of German firms in the transfer of nuclear-weapons technology to Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel.
Kolb assured the Parliament that Germany was determined to limit the exports of such equipment.
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