GERMANY’S government is considering the delivery of tank ammunition to Israel amid its genocidal war against Gaza, the German magazine Der Spiegel has reported, as Western governments keep on backing the Tel Aviv regime for its ongoing massacre.
Israel requested Germany in November to approve the delivery of around 10,000 rounds of 120-millimetre precision ammunition manufactured by Rheinmetall, the report said.
The departments involved have already fundamentally agreed behind the scenes to fulfil a request from the Israeli government.
The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor thanked the German government for its unrelenting support it has shown.
‘Since October 7, Germany has unmistakably stood by Israel and expressed its unreserved support,’ Prosor told Der Spiegel. ‘Israel thanks Germany for this,’ he added.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasised that arms deliveries were also possible.
According to the report, in order to promptly address the request, there is consideration being given to releasing ammunition from the stocks of the German army as the industry is unable to provide the desired precision ammunition immediately.
As global outrage continues to simmer over the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza by the settler colonial Zionist regime, Germany, which committed genocide in Namibia, has backed Israel at the ICJ.
In November apart from Germany, Israel had also asked other partners for military aid because of its heavy use of ammunition against the Gazans.
US President Joe Biden approved the delivery of 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition for almost $106 million at the beginning of December, after he bypassed Congress.
The Western-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza has been escalating because of the continuous support of Western governments, as they have been persistently arming Israel and supporting the regime with large amounts of funds.
- The US Senate has overwhelmingly rejected a proposed resolution that would have made military aid to Israel conditional to whether the regime is committing human rights violations in its war against the besieged Gaza Strip.
The resolution put forward by Senator Bernie Sanders failed to pass on Wednesday with 11 votes in favour and 72 votes against it, effectively killing the motion.
‘We must ensure that US aid is being used in accordance with human rights and our own laws,’ Sanders said in a speech before the vote.
He went on to say that the vote was ‘necessary because of the scale of destruction in Gaza’, describing Israel’s operations in Gaza as a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.
He also stressed that Israel does not have a right to use military assistance from the United States to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.
In a statement before the vote, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he opposed the resolution because it ‘directly put at risk ongoing US support for Israel while they are at war’ with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also said, ‘This resolution is not only off-base, it’s dangerous. It sends absolutely the wrong signal at the wrong time.’
Sanders’ proposed measure used a mechanism in the Foreign Assistance Act that would require the US State Department to send a report to Congress within 30 days on whether Israel’s war on Gaza is violating human rights and international accords.
If the administration fails to do so, US military aid to Israel could be quickly halted.
The White House had said it opposed the resolution, which could have paved the way toward the imposition of conditions on security assistance to Israel.
While the resolution was rejected, it reflected growing concern among some of US President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats over the supply of US weapons to Israel despite the heavy civilian death toll in Gaza.
Andrew O’Neill, the legislative director of Indivisible, one of the groups that backed the measure, described the measure as something of a victory, despite the defeat.
‘The status quo in the Senate for decades has been 100% support for Israel’s military, 100% of the time from 100% of the Senate,’ he said. ‘The fact that Sanders introduced this bill was already historic. That ten colleagues joined him is frankly remarkable.’
The latest development comes as anti-Israel sentiments are on the rise across the US as many keep calling on Biden to stop supporting the Israeli regime in its one-sided war against Gaza.
Western countries and the US in particular, have voiced their unequivocal support for Israel and what they call Tel Aviv.
The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed more than 24,280 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a ‘complete siege’ on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
- Iran’s defence minister says the country’s Armed Forces know no bounds in safeguarding the national interests and protecting the nation after the country carried out missile operations against the bases of anti-Iran terrorists and facilities run by the Israeli Mossad spy agency in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Syria.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani made the remarks on the sidelines of a cabinet session in the capital Tehran on Wednesday.
‘We see no limitations in defending our national interests and the people, and will certainly do this authoritatively. No matter where threats against the Islamic Republic come from, we will react and the response will surely be proportionate, decisive and strong,’ he emphasised.
Ashitani added, ‘We condemn terrorism anywhere in the world. We will definitely respond to any action meant to violate the Iranian nation’s rights, as well as any act of terror targeting people. We have already demonstrated this forcefully, and see no limits in this regard.’
The Iranian defence minister went on to say that the Islamic Republic respects the sovereignty, interests, rights and regulations as well as the territorial integrity of other countries, especially neighbours.
It, however, won’t allow anyone to cause mischief on its borders and will deal with any such move, Ashtiani emphasised.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the force ‘successfully’ launched missile attacks on an espionage centre of the Israeli regime’s Mossad spy agency in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and a gathering place of commanders and main elements linked to anti-Iran terrorist activities, especially the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.
The statement said a total of 24 ballistic missiles were fired during the operation, all of which precisely hit and destroyed the designated targets.
The IRGC said the force fired four Kheibar Shekan (fortress buster) missiles from Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan to Idlib, adding that four missiles were launched from the west, and seven more from the northwest of the country to the Mossad spy headquarters in Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
Elsewhere in his remarks on Wednesday, Ashtani noted that the Iranian Armed Forces are in possession of various types of indigenously developed and manufactured missiles, describing third-generation long-range Kheibar Shekan missile as a sophisticated armament that is brought into play whenever necessary. ‘We are a missile power in the world,’ he said.
He stated that Iranian experts have made major strides in the development and production of different kinds of missiles, either cruise or ballistic, as well as military equipment.
Ashtiani also stated that Iranian and Russian military officials are in close contact with each other, and that his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu has reaffirmed his country’s respect for Iran’s security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
‘We have a strategic relationship with Russia. I think they are also serious about it, and have pledged to comply with the matter,’ the Iranian defence minister said.
