Germany resumes weapons deliveries to Saudi Arabia
The German government has made a U-turn on arms exports. It wants to allow the delivery of Iris-T missiles and Eurofighter fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. The German government is allowing weapons exports to Saudi Arabia It was Germany's conservative-led government under Chancellor Angela Merkel that restricted German weapons exports to Saudi Arabia in October 2018. This was in response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and Saudi Arabia's involvement in the war in Yemen, where an alliance of Arab states is fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels under Saudi leadership. That war has triggered one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Now, just over five years later, the government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz is reassessing its relations with the Saudi government. Following the terror attack by the militant Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7, Saudi Arabia h...