Kohl’s Move to Sell Arms to Saudi Arabia Evokes Anger

The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) is up in arms over Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s reported decision to sell modern weaponry to Saudi Arabia. The plan has also been attacked by Israel. But Kohl, who visited Riyadh a week ago, appears to have defused most of the controversy by eliminating West Germany’s most advanced and sophisticated tank, the Leopard II, from the sales list.

Horst Ehmke, vice chairman of the SPD’s Bundestag faction, charged that Kohl has made a grave mistake “With unbelievable recklessness.” He said this was the first time the Federal Republic has made a military commitment outside the NATO alliance.

Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of the SPD warned in an article in Die Zeit that West Germany should refrain from shipping arms to the Middle East. Schmidt, when in office, was a strong advocate of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia but failed to get his party to agree.

Aides to Kohl insist that the Chancellor made no blanket commitment to sell the Saudis every type of weapon save the Leopard II. They said he offered a limited number of defensive items such as the “Gepard” armoured vehicle with anti-aircraft capabilities and a modern anti-aircraft surveillance system.

But some experts here say the Chancellor is engaged in a complicated maneuver to open the door to large scale West German arms sales to Saudi Arabia with an option to include the Leopard II at a later date.

Kohl himself angrily assailed Israeli critics of his plan last week, especially the remarks by the Israeli Ambassador here. Kohl said the critics know perfectly well that the arms sales pose no danger to Israel inasmuch as Bonn has assurances that they would be used solely for defensive purposes.

But the leftwing daily Frankfurter Rundschau said in an editorial that the claim that the weapons for Saudi Arabia are reserved for defense was “complete nonsense and bluff.”