Spanish-built combat vehicles for Latvia to carry Israeli turrets despite arms embargo

A Spanish arms company has begun delivering infantry fighting vehicles fitted with Israeli weapons systems to Latvia, despite the Spanish government declaring an arms embargo on Israel last year, Israeli business daily Globes reported on Thursday. According to the report, Latvia ordered 84 of the vehicles last year from General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Barbara Sistemas (GDELS-SBS), which is headquartered in Madrid, in a deal worth around €800m ($929m), with all the vehicles due to be delivered by 2029. The infantry fighting vehicles, called Mednieks, are equipped with unmanned turret systems, called UT30 MK2, which are produced by the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.