Sweden builds secret weapons factory in Saudi Arabia

 The project, nicknamed “Simoom”, began in 2007 and is being led by the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI), an administration subordinate to the Swedish government.
The documents, many classified as secret or top secret, show that a Swedish company created for the project has obtained the required licenses for missiles and torpedoes, among other military components. 

The General Director of FOI, when confronted with these facts, denied that the project existed. “We have no such project”, he said. But when the reporter showed him the documents he had no option but to admit it. The conversation was recorded and broadcasted on Swedish Radio. 

After the story broke Green Party leader Gustaf Fridolin from announced that he intends to report Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
The roots of the project are found in 2005, when Social Democrat Defence Minister Leni Björklund signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with her Saudi counterpart, Sultan Bin Abdulaziz. 

In the intervening years, a series of meetings between government officials and Swedish companies took place with visiting Saudi delegations. 

Swedes also visited the proposed location of the factory to asses whether it would be adequately protected topographically or need to be dug into the ground.
In 2008, Saudi Prince Khalid, deputy defense minister, wrote a letter to the Swedish government stating that developments were too slow. 

In the notes of a Swedish Defence Department meeting dated March 17th, 2008, a point on the agenda read, "How can we repair the situation in Saudi Arabia, our entire operation in the region is at stake." 

By January 2009, a private company, Swedish Security Technology and Innovation (SSTI), was founded to distance FOI, which was deemed as "legally hindered" from pursuing the project according to Swedish Radio News sources, from Simoom although employees there became high level consultants to the new enterprise. 

Later that year, SSTI was granted permission to buy ammunition and components for missiles, bombs, torpedoes and other equipment used in the production of arms. The permit came from the Swedish Non-Proliferation and Export Controls Agency (ISP), a government body which makes sure military sales follow national law. 

This is just another example of how Western powers, led by the US, support the Wahhabi dictatorship of Saudi Arabia in order to counter the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sweden is a part of this scheme and has no real, independent foreign policy. 

The US and its allies are selling weapons to Saudi Arabia while at the same time imposing strict sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran. In other words Saudi Arabia is used as a proxy to advance the interests of Western imperialism and Zionism in the Middle East. 

Protests against pro-Zionist and pro-Imperialist regime in Bahrain have been brutally suppressed while at the same time, these very same forces, i.e. America, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel and others fomented an insurgency to destabilize the anti-Zionist and anti-Imperialist state of Syria. 

Western powers cynically use slogans of “human rights” and “democracy” when it suits their economical and strategic purposes. Saudi Arabia, the closest friend of America in the region besides Israel, is probably the worst dictatorship in the world today, ruled by the fanatical and fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, from which stems the ideology of Al-Qaida. 

Mohamed Omar is a Swedish freelance writer 

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