German Submarines For Israel Torpedo Nuke-free ME Plans: Expert

Berlin, Dec 13, IRNA -- Germany plans to deliver a sixth Dolphin class submarine to Israel to undermine peace in the Middle East and 'run counter' to UN efforts to establish a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Mideast, a Frankfurt-based peace expert told the press here Monday. Bernhard Moltmann of the Frankfurt Peace Institute highlighted the fact that the German-Israeli submarine deal was 'part of a regional arms build-up.' 'It runs counter to all UN efforts for a nuclear weapons free zone in the region which is to be kicked off next year,' he said. It also contradicts moves for peaceful settlements of the conflicts inthe Middle East, Moltmann added. German Mideast scholars have time and again warned that the highly controversial submarine sale would seriously affect stability in the volatile region. Berlin has reportedly agreed to pay one-third of the cost of the sixth submarine after it looked earlier like the Merkel government was prepared to scrap the agreement. The Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported in late October that the German chancellor was angry at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for approving construction of further Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and failing to make concessions to reach a peace accord with the Palestinian side. A German official in Berlin disclosed last week that the Dolphin sale will go ahead amid widespread public criticism, with the government setting aside 180 million US dollars in next year's household budget to cover part of the costs. A die-hard political ally of the Zionist regime, Germany's has been pursuing a long-running policy of providing the illegal Jewish regime with heavily subsidized weapons systems as part of a 1953 reparations agreement linked to the Nazi-era genocide of Jews. Berlin donated the first two Dolphins to the Israeli navy in the late 1990s. It paid half the 700 million US dollar cost of the third of the diesel-electric boats, heavily modified versions of the Type-209 submarines built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG shipyard in the north German city of Kiel. In 2006, Israel ordered two more submarines during the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Berlin agreed to pick up one-third of the total tab of 1.27 billion US dollars of the more advanced subs. These are scheduled for delivery in 2012-13. Germany has reportedly played a key role in arming the Israeli navy over the past 12 years. The German government has kept silent on the its military deals with the Zionist regime, refusing to reveal any details of the contracts. A hardline supporter of Israel, Germany has become a major arms supplier of the illegal Jewish state despite a constitutional ban to send arms to crisis regions. There are no official statistics available on the sale of German weapons to Israel as nearly all arms exports to the Zionist regime are shrouded in utmost secrecy. German arms deliveries to Israel between 1998 and 2001 reached reportedly around 900 million US dollars./end