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Germany’s Heckler & Koch to Stop Selling Guns to Saudi Arabia, UAE & Israel

2017-09-22 - 2:44 am

Bahrain Mirror: Germany's deadliest weapons manufacturer, Heckler & Koch, will no longer sell weapons to war zones or countries that are corrupt, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel, according to the company's most recent report.

Founded in 1949, Heckler & Koch, a major producer of handguns, military rifles and sub-machine guns, quietly adopted a new policy to make it difficult to obtain export permits from the German government when dealing with a number of countries around the globe, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Countries in the company's current ban include: Israel, Mexico, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia or any African countries.

The Jerusalem Post further stated that the company quietly announced the move as a side note in its most recent annual report, stating that they will now only sell to "green countries," which they defined as being NATO-members or "NATO-equivalent" (Japan, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand) and those that met Transparency International's corruption perceptions index and the Economist Intelligence Unit's democracy index.

While Heckler & Koch did not respond to an inquiry regarding why Israel was added to the list, the German economic ministry told The Jerusalem Post in an email that while they are aware of the media reports, "we don't comment on company trials or decisions."

 

Arabic Version


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