German refusal to deliver Eurofighters Typhoon to Saudi Arabia will it open up opportunities for Rafale ?

On July 6, we evoked the opposition of the German Greens, to the resumption of arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia by Germany, while Riyadh intended to execute the option for 48 Eurofighter combat aircraft Typhoon additional assets to partially replace its aging Tornado fleet.

It seems that Chancellor Olaf Scholz preferred, unsurprisingly moreover, to preserve his governing coalition over the prospects of exporting the European combat aircraft, since the latter announced that the German refusal to deliver lethal weapons in Riyadh remained topical until the war in Yemen ended.

If, at the end of May, a ceasefire agreement which has since been respected was signed between the Yemeni authorities, their Saudi and Emirati allies, on the one hand, and the Houthi rebels supported by Tehran, on the other, it does not It is not, strictly speaking, an agreement marking the end of this conflict, according to Berlin.

Interestingly, Olaf Scholz's SPD and his Green allies agreed to authorize the sale of six A400M transport planes to the United Arab Emirates. It was probably for Berlin to appease the concerns of Paris and Madrid following the arbitration around the Typhoon, while the three countries collaborate on the FCAS program, but also on the A400M (assembled in Spain), while relying on the fact that as it is a transport aircraft, it does not strictly speaking constitute of an offensive weapon system, unlike the Typhoon.

Let us recall, for all intents and purposes, that Germany is in no way showing any specific behavior here by refusing to deliver weapons, even co-produced ones, to a country for its own reasons. Thus, it should be recalled, for example, that France recently opposed the participation of the Franco-Italian consortium Eurosam in the Turkish program to develop a medium-range anti-aircraft system, as well as the sale of Aster missiles to Ankara, this despite Rome's insistence on this.

But the subtlety of Olaf Scholz's arbitration allowing the A400M to be delivered to Abu Dhabi, while prohibiting the sale of Typhoon in Riyadh, could largely do the business of Paris, which has been trying for several months to get back into the good graces of the Saudi authorities in terms of Defense cooperation.

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