A new bill aiming to prevent weapons exports and all other related services to countries that may use them for human rights abuses, is looking to ban weapons exports to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey for their ‘’involvement in military conflicts,’’ Qatari media network Al Jazeera reported.
Proposed by the social-democratic opposition party Die Linke, the drafts focus is for the most part on Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their role in the war in Yemen, the network said, adding that the German bill also singles out Turkey for its ongoing military mission in northern Syria where the country has been fighting Kurdish forces it deems as terrorists.
Said law, if approved, would not only prevent future transactions from being made with these countries but work to retroactively recall previously agreed upon deals, Al Jazeera indicated.
The bill specifically refers to a deal made Germany and Turkey to service several Leopard tanks, which created a great deal of controversy in German political circles.
Germany’s opposition expressed its outrage to German-made Leopard tanks being used by the Turkish army’s ongoing military operation into Syria, after images emerged of the tanks being used against Kurdish militants in Operation ‘Olive Branch.’
Germany maintains that the Leopard 2 tanks were sold to Turkey on the understanding that they were not to be used against the Kurds, and they would not been deployed in domestic conflict against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a rebel group that has been fighting Turkey for 33 years.
Patrol boats bought by Saudi Arabia, being used to blockade Yemeni ports from receiving aid and other goods to help alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn country, were also a highlight of the report, Al Jazeera said.
Saudi Arabia has been one of the biggest recipients of German arms, worth $1.2bn in total between 2013 and 2017, the site indicated.
While pointing out that the German government has already announced it would halt all arms exports to countries involved in the ongoing war in Yemen, Al Jazeera noted that the aforementioned bill would expand on that in addition to working retroactively on deals already made.