Germany imposes travel ban and freezes arms sales to Saudi Arabia

The German government announced the cessation of all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and banned the entry of Saudi nationals suspected of involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to its territory and to most European countries.

The German Ministry of Economy said in a statement that the decision of the Council of Ministers imposes a ban on the issuance of new licenses for the export of weapons to Riyadh, and stop the validity of licenses granted previously.

The ministry said it would not issue any other weapons to Saudi Arabia even if it was approved earlier.

The Berlin government has so far decided to suspend only nine arms deals for Saudi Arabia and has said it will review how to deal with export licenses already granted. The government has now apparently completed this review.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Economy told a news conference of the government on Monday that the German government "exercised its influence in companies that have licenses to export weapons to stop exports of arms from Germany to Saudi Arabia."

The spokesman said in response to a query that the exports had been banned "in different ways", but he could not talk about it for legal reasons.

These exports are likely to be related to 20 boats from the production of the Forsgerat Larsen plant the company wanted to supply to Saudi Arabia. Two of the boats were ready for delivery and already had an export license, while eight more began to be produced at the company's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern facility.

Block access
On the other hand, German Foreign Minister Haikou Mas announced that his country has imposed a ban on the entry of 18 Saudis to its territory as well as to the countries of the "Schengen" the 26, against the backdrop of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mas said the decision was made in coordination with France and Britain. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christopher Burger said the ban included members of the team charged with the 15-member killing and three others suspected of ordering the case. The spokesman declined to give their names.