Corruption in Israel would abolish Germany military deal

Germany would call off a submarine purchase deal with Israel if Israeli police investigation reveals corruption from the Israeli government‘s side, Israel’s Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Read: Israel agrees Germany can sell submarines to Egypt

Israel and Germany agreed few weeks ago to terminate the proposed purchase of submarines from a German company if the Israeli investigation revealed a graft related to the agreement.

On 31 October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in the Knesset that Israel was close to signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Germany to buy three new military submarines.

#Corruption

The Israeli-German MoU was supposed to be signed towards the end of 2016, but the flood of media reports over the corruption within the Israeli government, and the investigations held in both Israel and Germany, have led to the suspension of talks between the two countries for over four months.

According to Haaretz, high-ranking Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed successive requests from the Prime Minister’s Office that the MoU be signed, saying that the timing was wrong.