PRESS RELEASE
Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth Calls Saudis ‘Top Terror Exporter’
March 8, 2015 (EIRNS)—Prior to German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel’s visit to Saudi Arabia to evaluate the scope of German arms exports to the region, Vice President of the German Parliament (Bundestag) Claudia Roth (Greens), in an interview with Welt am Sonntag today, said "Saudi Arabia is the top terror exporter in the Middle East," Iran-based Fars News Agency reported.
Roth’s warning to Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Gabriel stems from the fact that Saudi Arabia has emerged as the number-one importer of lethal arms, according to the annual Global Defence Trade Report issued by IHS Inc. According to Ben Moores, senior defense analyst at IHS Inc., Saudi Arabia is expected to boost its buying by 52% in 2015 to a total of $9.8 billion. That’s one of every seven dollars spent globally on defense imports, according to an IHS press release March 7. Another analyst, David Cortright of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, told i24 News that increased spending on defense by the Saudis may indicate an attempt to temper the U.S. "rapprochement" with Iran, "deepening ties in a time of uncertainty, as a possibly greater role with Iran looms on the horizon."
Roth was quoted by Fars as telling Die Welt that Germany’s guidelines on weapons exports make it "crystal clear that deliveries cannot be made to such countries" that supply terrorists, and that "a large portion" of the Takfiri militants in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq come from Saudi Arabia.
