Germany’s conservative opposition leader has demanded an explanation for alleged delays in approving new arms shipments to Israel. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Tuesday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz needs to explain why the government had only recently started swiftly approving export licences to send German-made munitions to Israel, which is currently waging wars in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon. In the past week, Merz said conservative lawmakers “learned that a number of export licences had been granted to various German companies at ve…