Comments

You have commented 375 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Europe

'We Need Order': For the Sheikhs' Money, Merz Forgot About Wars and Murders

2026-02-11

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Gregor Spitzen

[REGNUM] The German Chancellor's trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates acquired scandalous overtones even at the planning stage.

Friedrich Merz traveled to the Persian Gulf countries primarily to improve economic relations. Meanwhile, his coalition partners from the SPD, the Greens, and non-governmental organizations insisted that the primary goal was to address the limitations of human rights in the region.

It must be said that German politicians are doing a disastrous job of both. Germany has not yet forgotten the "triumphant" visit to Qatar by Green Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economics Robert Habeck in November 2022, when, upon his return to Berlin, he announced that he had resolved all national gas supply issues and ensured Germany's energy security for years to come. Liquefied natural gas from Qatar has never arrived in Germany.

As for Annalena Baerbock -style foreign policy, which delighted in visiting countries with completely different cultural codes and delivering pompous lectures on the nature of democracy and human rights, demonstrating textbook examples of narrative thinking, even the German government seems to have finally realized that this is a dead end. It's very easy to lose friends and make enemies, something Germany simply cannot afford today.

Given the precarious situation in the national energy sector, Merz wisely decided to risk the coalition consensus and focus on the economic aspect of his visit. The chancellor has cause for concern: over the past week, gas reserves in German storage facilities have fallen by 32%.

Nord Stream has long since been blown up. The reliability of the United States as a primary source of LNG has been called into question following Donald Trump's Greenland antics. Therefore, the importance of the Gulf countries as alternative suppliers of natural gas for Germany today is difficult to overestimate.

And when the Chancellor was asked during a visit to a floating library in Doha whether he had addressed the murder of CNN journalist beloved martyr of journalism Jamal Khashoggi

beloved martyr of journalism Jamal Khashoggi

...who was simultaneously a very well paid Washington Post columnist and a long time propagandist for the Moslem Brotherhood and Al Qaeda — he died while on the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i payroll, but previously wrote at the behest of then-Saudi intel chief Prince Turki al-Faisal...
, which took place eight years ago in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey, he avoided a direct answer.

"We don't talk about this in public; such matters are decided behind closed doors," the chancellor replied. An understandable move in the realm of realpolitik, but one that will certainly anger the moralistic Greens and their ideological allies in the SPD back home.

However, it was precisely thanks to the chancellor's restraint that the dinner with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was "cordial and open." It was hard to imagine that Merz would use the first intimate moments of such a warm atmosphere with bin Salman to discuss human rights violations in general and the murder of the unpopular journalist in particular.

It is unlikely that the Chancellor recalled the conflict in Yemen, in which Saudi Arabia acted as an intervener and which led to the deaths of many civilians.

Setting aside ideology and focusing on national interests, the chancellor wants to simplify arms exports to the Persian Gulf countries, conclude energy partnerships and investment agreements, and plan infrastructure projects. Merz was accompanied by a large business delegation, including heads of energy, construction, and defense companies.

"Our partners may not share the same values and interests, but they understand that we need an order in which we trust agreements and treat each other with respect," the chancellor said.

Before his election, the CDU leader promised to boost the German economy. However, the government has so far failed to achieve this. The "autumn of reforms" promised by Merz has remained a collection of pathetic slogans.

New incentives to develop manufacturing in Germany, rather than relocating it to countries with more favorable tax policies, predictable electricity prices, and reasonable environmental standards for Germany's industrial giants, have yet to materialize. The German economy has continued to stagnate for the third year in a row, and even the €800 billion in investments in the military-industrial complex and infrastructure, borrowed by the "black-red" government from future generations of Germans, have yet to yield any visible returns.

In such a dire situation, the chancellor, whose support in German society has fallen to 23%, could clearly use some outside help.

For example, from solvent "partners" from the Persian Gulf. Especially since the Arab side has shown great interest in German investments in the development of Saudi cities, as became known after Merz's meeting with bin Salman.

The German company Siemens, for example, is currently building a metro in the Saudi Arabian capital. The Chancellor promised that Riyadh can rely on Germany's commitments and that he wants to take relations "to a new level."

It seems the Persian Gulf sheikhs needn't worry about German arms manufacturers refusing to sell anything to them, citing human rights concerns in the region as the reason for the ban. It's worth noting that under the previous "traffic light coalition" government, an embargo was imposed on the sale of Eurofighter fighter jets to Saudi Arabia for political reasons.

Although, after heated intra-coalition discussions, an agreement in principle to sell combat aircraft to Riyadh was reached, some believe it came too late. The Saudis have since taken a good look at American models. And their sale is being actively lobbied by Trump himself, with whom even Middle Eastern monarchs should avoid unnecessary antagonism. However, the Germans are hoping for at least a successful deal with the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.

From a common-sense perspective, the German government's shift from ideologically charged policies to real-world ones can only be welcomed. However, the realization that the real world is nothing like Disneyland has come to Berlin significantly late.

While Germany was pontificating about the rights of women, sexual minorities*, and Pakistani workers on Arab construction sites, its competitors were busy developing promising markets, courting solvent buyers. So, Germany's timing for carving up the "Middle Eastern pie" was ill-timed.

Posted by:badanov

00:00