German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday there should be no arms exports to Saudi Arabia while questions remain about the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Merkel at a press conference condemned Khashoggi’s killing and said there is an “urgent need for further clarification.”

“Those responsible have not yet been held accountable,” she said. “I agree with all those who say that arms exports, which are already limited, cannot happen given the circumstances in which we are now in.”

Prior to Merkel’s remarks, other leading German politicians have called for a stop to arms exports to Saudi Arabia following Riyadh's admission that Khashoggi was killed in a Saudi Consulate.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, from the center-left Social Democrats, said there is "no basis" for further exports of weapons to the kingdom.

His view was echoed by Norbert Röttgen from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, who chairs the parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"If there aren't decisive consequences, also in terms of power in the Saudi Arabian leadership, in the very near future, then there has to be a stop of all arms shipments, even of those that have already been authorized," Röttgen said in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Röttgen also called on the German government to coordinate "diplomatic steps" with EU and NATO allies, "such as expelling embassy personnel."

Foreign affairs chief Maas slammed "several contradictions" in Saudi Arabia's official explanation of the death. "First it was stated that the Saudi journalist had left the consulate, now it is stated that he did die," he said in an interview on public television ARD Saturday night. "As long as these investigations are ongoing, as long as we don't know what has happened there, there is no basis on which we can take positive decisions for arms exports to Saudi Arabia."

Maas also issued a joint statement Sunday with his French and British counterparts, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Jeremy Hunt, saying how Khashoggi died still needs “to be backed by facts to be considered credible.”

Merkel said Saturday she is not satisfied with the official Saudi explanation of Khashoggi's death and called for transparency from Riyadh.

In their coalition treaty signed earlier this year, Germany's governing parties vowed not to authorize arms sales to countries "directly involved in the war in Yemen" with an exemption for shipments that it could be proven would remain in the designated destination country.

In addition, the EU's common position on arms exports bans sales of weapons to countries "if there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might be used for internal repression."

Although Germany is only the fourth-biggest arms exporter to Saudi Arabia, behind the United States, Britain and France, German weapons manufacturers have profited from Riyadh's arms-buying spree in recent years. In the first nine months of this year, Germany authorized arms exports worth more than €400 million to Saudi Arabia, making the country Berlin's second-best weapons customer, according to official data reported by news agency DPA.

German politicians have also called on Joe Kaeser, the CEO of German conglomerate Siemens, to withdraw from a Saudi investment conference planned this week. While other Western business leaders, as well as politicians, have pulled out due to the Khashoggi case, Siemens is one of the conference's main partners. Kaeser's predecessor at Siemens, Klaus Kleinfeld, is now economic adviser of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"The government must urge ... senior business leaders to renounce their attendance," Röttgen said. "This applies, in my view, to the CEO of Siemens." Kaeser had earlier defended his participation at the conference, saying that "if we stop communicating with countries in which people are missing, I could just stay at home all the time."

The opposition Free Democrats, who are close to the business community, also backed a boycott of the conference. "German businesses should stay away from Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's biggest investor conference. This is especially true for Siemens, one of the three main sponsors," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the party's deputy parliamentary group leader.