Opposition demands Scholz explain delays in sending weapons to Israel

Germany's conservative opposition leader has demanded an explanation for alleged delays in approving new arms shipments to Israel.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Tuesday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz needs to explain why the government had only recently started swiftly approving export licences to send German-made munitions to Israel, which is currently waging wars in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.

In the past week, Merz said conservative lawmakers "learned that a number of export licences had been granted to various German companies at very short notice."

He called that "good news," but went on to allege that Scholz's government had previously been delaying the shipment of German weapons to Israel.

Further export licences had apparently also been promised to some of the companies concerned immediately in the wake of the one-year anniversary of the deadly October 7 terror attacks on Israel.

Merz said he had heard from Israeli sources "that the German government has now apparently largely given up its opposition to export licences to Israel."

"There are various reasons why one may well come to the conclusion that one does not want to supply armaments and spare parts to Israel," Merz said. "But if that is the case, then the German public should not be given the impression that everything is being done to help this country in its self-defence."

Scholz had announced further German arms deliveries to Israel during parliamentary debate last week.

"We have supplied weapons and we will supply weapons," the chancellor said.

The German Economy Ministry revealed that no export licences for weapons to Israel had been approved between early March and August 21. That information was provided in response to a parliamentary enquiry from the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

However, the German government emphasized that there was no arms export boycott against Israel.

The sudden flow of German weapons to Israel calls any previous delays into question, said Alexander Dobrindt, a leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

"The fact that export licences are now possible very quickly for deliveries which had been blocked for months shows that the blockade was not justified," he said.