BERLIN HAS denied rebuffing a request by Israel for a discount on the acquisition of a German submarine worth €500 million.
Israel owns three German-built Dolphin submarines and has another two under construction in the northern German city of Kiel.
According to leaks, however, preliminary talks about the sixth craft have stalled over financing.
“We wish to clarify that there are no negotiations with Germany for the purchase by Israel of an additional submarine,” said government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm in Berlin yesterday.
However, the energetic denial, on a subject Germany normally declines to discuss, has prompted speculation of whether the submarine stand-off represents a shift in Berlin’s relations with Israel.
For four decades, West Germany supplied military equipment as part of its post-war obligation to defend the security of the Jewish state. That policy continued beyond German unification, right up until days before Gerhard Schröder left office in 2005, when he signed a €1 billion contract to produce two submarines under special financial conditions.
These contracts specify that Israel pays just one third of the €500 million per submarine purchase price. Germany finances another third, and takes military equipment from Israel in exchange for the rest – a welcome source of convertible currency for the Middle East nation.
Jerusalem has reportedly exercised the contract’s option for a sixth submarine, only for its initial approach to be rebuffed from Berlin. Israeli sources have confirmed that the German and Israeli leaders talked by telephone earlier this month and that submarines were discussed. Berlin declined to comment.
“It isn’t clear if the talks are official or just an approach but, on July 7th, Germany apparently told the Israelis that they had no chance of getting another submarine on the previous conditions,” said Otfried Nassauer, director of the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security.
A cooling off of German relations with Israel may be one reason for the change of heart, but analysts suggest that practical concerns play a role too.
Many of the German shipyards that once built submarines for Israel are now in foreign hands. The Kiel shipyard is partly owned by an investment fund from the United Arab Emirates, and Berlin is less inclined to subsidise lucrative contracts benefiting a foreign-owned company.
“They want to strangle the discussion now because otherwise a larger discussion will come along about the business beyond the financing,” said Mr Nassauer.
German submarines being supplied to Israel has been a source of controversy for years – not just because of the generous discounts.
Informed sources say the Israeli Dolphin submarines have launch tubes not just for regular torpedoes, but suitable for launching nuclear weapons.
Because Germany is forbidden from exporting such craft, however, construction is reportedly completed in Israel.
Israel declines to confirm or deny that it possesses nuclear weapons.