World Bulletin / News Desk

Berlin has approved the sale of three more high-tech submarines to Israel, boosting the size of the country’s nuclear-capable submarine fleet to nine, Der Spiegel has reported.

The newsweekly said Germany’s Federal Security Council greenlighted the €1.5-billion deal at a closed meeting on Wednesday, and that Berlin would subsidize a third of the costs.

Berlin issued no official statement on the matter, as the council’s decisions are confidential.

Since 1998, Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems has produced five advanced Dolphin-class submarines for Israel, with a sixth now under construction at the company’s shipyards in Kiel.

The advanced submarines are capable of carrying missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.