Israeli warships being built in shipyard owned by Abu-Dhabi and Lebanese firm
Jerusalem Post/December 04/16
The Defense Ministry said Sunday the construction of four Israel Navy corvettes at a shipyard owned by an Abu Dhabi-based company does not jeopardize any classified information because all combat and internal systems will be installed in Israel.
The contract to buy protective ships was signed with the German company, with direct involvement of the German government, which is funding a third of the cost of the deal,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement to The Jerusalem Post. “Prior to the signing of the contracts, the defense establishment’s director of security carried out checks with German government officials to confirm that no classified material from the project will be transferred to any unauthorized body that has not been approved as such. “It is important to note that the German shipyard builds only the body of the ships, all of the systems will be installed in Israel,”it added.
The ministry was responding to a report by Yediot Aharonot on Sunday that the German shipyard where the new vessels are being constructed is operated by Abu Dhabi MAR and owned by Iskandar Safa, a French businessman of Lebanese descent.
Safa’s Beirut-based Privinvest shipbuilding group owns 30% stake of MAR, while the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ain International Group owns the remaining 70%.
Israel considers Lebanon as an “enemy state” and has no diplomatic ties with its northern neighbor. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, also has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, and Israeli passport holders are prohibited from entering the country. The construction of the four “Saar-6” class warships, which are due to arrive in Israel by 2020 to defend Israel’s offshore natural gas reserves, was agreed to in a €430 million deal between Israel and the German company ThyssenKrupp in 2015. ThyssenKrupp reportedly sub-contracted the work to German Naval Yards Kiel, which was sold to Abu Dhabi MAR 2011.
German Naval Yards Kiel told Yediot Aharonot it is the secondary contractor of ThyssenKrupp Marine System and that its role in the deal with the Israel Navy is to contribute to the engineering of the vessel and build it in the Kiel shipyard. “The shipyard was in contact with the Israeli side only through ThyssenKrupp,” it said.
The report comes just two days after it was revealed that an Iranian government firm owns a 4.5% stake in ThyssenKrupp, which also is supplying Israel with new Dolphin-class submarines. The Defense Ministry had not been aware of that ownership, raising concerns that Iran might get its hands on classified information on one of Israel’s most advanced weapons systems.
In January 2010, Israel’s infrastructures minister Uzi Landau participated in an IRENA conference in Abu Dhabi, marking the first time an Israeli cabinet minister visited the country. A month later, the senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was assassinated in Dubai, and police blamed the Mossad, leading to tensions rising to an all-time high between the two countries.
Four years later, then energy minister Silvan Shalom led an official Israeli delegation to Abu Dhabi after the country’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum said the UAE would be willing to improve relations if Israel agreed to a peace deal with the Palestinians.
In-depth : Lebanese tycoon and UAE firm ‘co-building Israeli military vessels’
Lebanese tycoon and UAE firm ‘co-building Israeli military vessels’ Open in fullscreen
The New Arab/December, 04/16 https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2016/12/4/lebanese-tycoon-and-uae-firm-co-building-israeli-military-vessels
A Lebanese-French shipbuilding mogul and his Emirati partners have been accused of being connected to the construction of Israeli navy corvettes in Germany, Israeli press reports have revealed.
A Franco-Lebanese mogul and his Emirati partners have been accused of being connected to the construction of Israeli navy corvettes in Germany as part of a sub-contracting deal, Israeli press reports have said.
Iskandar Safa, a multi-millionnaire shipbuilder co-owns Abu Dhabi MAR, a major ship builder in the Gulf. The company operates the docks where the vessels are being assembled, via his Privinvest shipbuilding group based in Beirut. The other owner is Al Ain International Group, from Abu Dhabi. The revelations could prove embarrassing to Beirut and Abu Dhabi, as well as Tel Aviv. Safa – also known by his nickname Sandy during his alleged Lebanese civil war role – was named but subsequently cleared in an investigation into ransom payment to Lebanese paramilitary group Hizballah.
This was said to be in exchange for the release of French hostages during the Lebanese civil war. Hizballah fought an on-off war with Israel for the past three decades. In the last major conflict between the two – in 2006 – Hizballah fighters disabled a Sa’ar-5 corvette from the same family of the ones being built with a Chinese made anti-ship missile.
Safa (R) with French president Hollande (L) during a visit to Mozambique [AFP]
According to a 2015 report in pro-Hizballah Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, Safa is a relative of current Lebanese Defence Minister Samir Mouqbel.
His name recently came up in the Panama Papers leaks as the alleged owner of offshore accounts. He has since defended his offshore activities as legitimate.
Safa also co-owns Valeurs Actuelles, a French publication that has been described as “Islamophobic”.
A total of four Saar 6-class Israeli navy corvettes are under construction in the German shipyard owned by Lebanese and Abu Dhabi-based companies, according to a Sunday report in Israeli daily Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronoth.
The corvettes
The ships were ordered by Tel Aviv to defend off-shore gas fields which are exploited by Israel and said to be in Palestinian waters.
The order was agreed in a 2015 deal between Israel and German company ThyssenKrupp, which has sub-contracted the work out to German Naval Yards Kiel.
Tgis company was formerly known as Abu Dhabi MAR Kiel, the still Lebanese-Emirati-owned shipyard in Kiel, Germany.
The contract, signed in 2015, is worth $480 million. Under the contract, Germany will provide the Israeli-designed corvettes to the Israel navy, to be delivered over the five years.
It will also finance approximately one-third of the cost of the deal with a special grant of $122 million. The ships are slightly bigger than Israel’s current Saar 5 corvettes, the largest ships currently in service with the navy, according to The Times of Israel.
This and other deals with the same Germany company are being investigated by anti-corruption teams in Israel, possibly implicating Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
In response to inquiries from Yedioth, German Naval Yards Kiel said it is a secondary contractor of ThyssenKrupp Sea Systems and that it contributes to the engineering of sailing vessels and to their construction in the Kiel shipyards.
The company noted that all contact between the shipyard and Israeli officials was via ThyssenKrupp. The Arab involvement in the construction of military vessels for Israel could be embarrassing for all sides
Embarrasing revelations
The Arab involvement in the construction of military vessels for Israel could be embarrassing for all sides. Lebanon continues to be in an official “state of war” with Israel and whose laws prohibit any dealings with Israeli companies. Lebanon and Israel are also locked in an ongoing dispute over maritime borders, directly affecting the hydrocarbon fields the corvettes are designed to “defend”. At a time when Israel remains isolated in the world – following the 2014 Gaza War and Second Intifada – some “Arab official and private alliances” are continuing. “This includes Emirati-Lebanese entities, are [paradoxically] helping to strenghen Israel militarily,” Samah Idriss, head of Lebanon branch of Boycott Divestment Sanctions [BDS] organisation which advocates the full boycott Israel, told The New Arab. “The defence of oil and gas resources stolen from the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples is being enabled by Arabs with German assistance,” he added. The UAE does not recognise Israel and does not have official diplomatic or economic ties with Tel Aviv. However, there have been reports of increasing indirect dealings between the two countries in the past, including trade missions in the UAE.
For its part, the Israel Defence Ministry told Yedioth in a statement that there was an investigation into the alleged Lebanese links. “Before the contracts were signed, the Director of Security of the Defence Establishment conducted checks with German government officials in order to confirm that no classified material from the project will be transferred to an unauthorised body that has not been approved as such. It is important to note that the German shipyard builds only the body of the ships, all of the systems will be installed in Israel.”
The revelation, Yedioth’s report added, came on the heels of reports that an Iranian government company owns 4.5 percent of ThyssenKrupp.
