Berlin has approved the sale of a fourth Dolphin military submarine to Israel and will stump up a third of its cost, a senior German official revealed today.
Dolphin-class submarines are capable of launching nuclear-tipped missiles, and it is an open secret that Israel has nukes.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that parliament has set aside €135 million (£116m) in next year’s budget to subsidise the sale.
Germany has already sold three Dolphin subs to Israel — one half-funded and two entirely paid for by Berlin.
Two more are being built by workers at Germany’s HDW shipyard, which is a division of ThyssenKrupp AG.
Iran’s investment arm IFIC owns about 4.5 per cent of the firm, which has been tainted by its exploitation of slave labour during World War II in support of the nazi war effort.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-wing government has tried harder this year to break into the huge Middle East arms market, traditionally dominated by Britain, the United States, France and Russia.
Berlin recently approved the sale of 270 tanks to Saudi Arabia in a shady £1.3 billion deal and is planning to export £9bn-worth of frigates, armoured vehicles and border security systems to Algeria.
Der Spiegel magazine recently noted that Ms “Merkel is breaking with a traditional doctrine of German foreign policy.
“The fundamental principle used to be that weapons produced in Germany couldn’t be delivered to countries engaged in a conflict.”
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