The Israeli government through its embassy here has asked the West German Foreign Ministry to explain a $240 million sale of anti-tank missiles to Syria by a German-French consortium, Euromissile. Foreign Ministry spokesman, Juergen Suedhoff has said Bonn has “no sympathy” for attacks on it by the Israeli press as a result of the sale, since it concerns “a bilateral, Syrian-French transaction.”
Another statement, issued by the Economics Ministry, said the ban on German weapons sales to crisis areas did not mean that when such arms were supplied to other NATO countries Bonn could expect its partners not to re-sell the items. Such a ban on re-sales would bring arms sales to a halt and the German arms industry could just as well close down, the Ministry said.
Israeli newspapers criticized West Germany for not objecting to the sale, thereby adopting on “anti-Israel posture.” They also said the sale violated Bonn’s stated policy of not delivering weapons to crisis areas. However, Suedhoff said the government had “no legal possibility” of intervening to stop the arms delivery.
German press comment has been generally critical of Bonn’s attitude. Though the liberal weekly “Zeit” scolded Israel for directing its complaints solely at Bonn rather than at France, the conservative daily “Welt” said the transaction had “reopened old wounds. The fact that the very country in whose name Auschwitz occurred is allowing arms to be delivered to an Arab state which wishes to use them to destroy Israel is totally unbearable for Jerusalem.” Bonn’s reaction to Israeli criticism showed “a cold-heartedness which causes one to freeze,” Welt said.
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