Berlin Opposition Livid about Saudi Border Deal

German Police Working for EADS

Berlin Opposition Livid about Saudi Border Deal

By Matthias Gebauer and Florian Gathmann

Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud during a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2010.

The deal involves a mountain of money: The German deal to sell Saudi Arabia 200 "Leopard" battle tanks is worth some €2 billion. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has yet to directly confirm the deal -- and the opposition is furious . Given the pro-democracy movements in the region, it has demanded that Germany cease making arms deals with authoritarian regimes such as that in power in Saudi Arabia.

The opposition in Berlin was already outraged about a plan to sell 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia. Now, however, a new deal involving the training of Saudi border patrol officers is raising additional questions. And some say the German constitution may have been violated.

But now the opposition has found a new avenue of attack. Germany, after all, is involved in training Saudi security forces in conjunction with the European defense company EADS. And according to a recent report in the German newsweekly Stern, the mission is much more dicey than previously thought.

The training deal also involves a lot of money. According to Stern, Saudi Arabia awarded a €2 billion contract to EADS in 2008 to set up a state-of-the-art surveillance system along its 9,000 kilometer (5,600 miles) border. More precisely, the contract went to Cassidian, a Munich-based defense company that is an offshoot of EADS. Read the rest on: SPIECHELONLINE