Germany no longer supplies arms to Saudi Arabia as a consequence of the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Now, the dispute in the grand coalition over the export stop for Saudi Arabia is coming to a head. The SPD wants to extend the stop by six months, CDU and CSU gave the proposal a clear rejection.

The CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer accused the SPD, with its "very one-sided and premature determination" to put party-political interests over the European cooperation. They consider it "fatal in the European spirit", if you put your own party political standards so far forward.

Similarly, CSU chief Markus Söder expressed at a joint press conference on the presentation of the European elections program of CDU and CSU. The behavior of the SPD is "more likely to be owed to the election campaign, than that it follows a basic conviction," he said.

The coalition wants to decide by Sunday whether to extend the complete arms export ban for Saudi Arabia. In France and Great Britain there is massive criticism of the German approach, because it also thwarted joint arms projects. According to the SPIEGEL, about 50 contracts of French companies can not be fulfilled at present, because the German companies are not allowed to deliver. German arms companies reserve the right to take legal action (read the history of the armament dilemma here).

"Saudi Arabia is at war in Yemen, there are no weapons left"

At the insistence of the Social Democrats, the Union and SPD had already agreed on an export stop for all countries "directly" involved in the Yemen war. This formulation was aimed at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They attacked militarily against the Yemeni government in the civil war against the Houthi rebels. Which in turn are supported by Iran.

The SPD remained in position. "The Union seems to have completely lost the moral compass in the export of armaments," said SPD faction vice Sören Bartol. "Saudi Arabia is waging war in Yemen, there are no weapons, so we agreed in the coalition, and the export stop has to be extended for another six months."

The complete export ban for Saudi Arabia was initially for two months after the journalist Khashoggi was killed in November in Istanbul. He was then extended at the beginning of January for another two months and again at the beginning of March for three weeks. Now, the coalition itself has set a deadline of March 31 for another decision.