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Economy Stalls Sub Agreement Between Germany And Israel
Posted on: 2010-07-29 02:24:34 Germany and Israel have failed to agree on a sale's deal of a German submarine to Israel, a Berlin source said on Friday. "There is no financial commitment," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. "There are no concrete negotiations with Israel over a sixth submarine. As for whether there are informal talks -- because of the nature of the matter, I can make no statement on this." The U.S. journal Defense News reported this week that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government had turned down Israel's request for a discount of up to one-third on the price of a $1.6 billion package including two other warships and torpedoes. Germany funded more than 80 percent of the cost of Israel's first three Dolphin submarines in the 1990s, and is currently accounting for a third of the cost of two more submarines being manufactured in Germany. The full cost of the diesel-powered Dolphin class submarine would be some $700 million. Others already in Israel's fleet were extensively underwritten by Germany, which is dedicated to Israel's security, founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust. |