Since the beginning of 2019, the German government has agreed to export weapons worth more than one billion euros to countries participating in the military alliance fighting the Houthis in Yemen.
The German Ministry of Economy’s response to a request for a briefing from the left’s Parliamentary representative, Sevim Dagdelin, stated that the German government approved 21 arms deals worth 802 million euros within about 15 months for Egypt, and issued 76 permits to supply weapons to the UAE at a value of 257 million euro.
According to the response, the government also agreed to supply weapons to three other countries in the coalition, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, with a total value of 119 million euros.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, the leader of the alliance, only got four-wheel drive vehicles. It should be noted that Saudi Arabia is the only country in the coalition against which Germany has imposed an arms embargo since November 2018 for several reasons, including the Yemen war and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The supply of all-wheel drive vehicles has been the only exception since then.
The total number of permits issued by the German government to supply weapons to countries participating in the alliance from January 1, 2019 to March 24 this year, reached 224, valued at approximately 1.2 billion euros.
The ministry’s response did not include the situation for Sudan and Mauritania, who are participating in the alliance as well.
The Christian Alliance - to which Chancellor Angela Merkel belongs - and the Social Democratic Party agreed in the ruling coalition treaty in 2017 to stop exporting weapons to the countries participating "directly" in the Yemen war, but this ban is not currently fully applied except to Saudi Arabia.