The Federal Government rejects Britain's demand for a partial resumption of arms exports to Saudi Arabia. "The attitude of the Federal Government is clear, and there is also no new state," said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Berlin. "There is currently no basis for further approvals."

As SPIEGEL reported, British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt had written in a letter to his German counterpart Heiko Maas calling for Germany to exclude European joint projects such as the Eurofighter or the Tornado from exporting. Because of the embargo, the British are currently receiving no German supplies for military equipment going to Saudi Arabia.

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Armaments exports: Controversy over components for fighter jets

During a visit to Berlin, Hunt renewed his warning that without arms exports to Saudi Arabia one would lose influence over the kingdom. "We need to maintain these strategic relationships to bring a European voice to the table of peace talks for Yemen," Hunt said. Germany and Great Britain agree that a solution to the war must be found there.

The federal government had imposed the export stop after the murder of the dissident Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The embargo is initially valid until 9 March. NATO partners such as Britain and France, on the other hand, continue arms deals with the Kingdom.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen had recently pleaded for a standardization of European export guidelines and revealed an openness to easing the strict German rules. "We Germans should not pretend that we are more moral than France or more politically far-sighted than Great Britain in terms of human rights policy," von der Leyen said at the Munich Security Conference.