German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas | Photo by Sean Gallup via Getty Images Germany rebuffs British pressure to sell arms to Saudi Arabia ‘We are not supplying arms to Saudi Arabia currently,’ Germany’s foreign minister tells his British counterpart.

BERLIN — The German government will not resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite British diplomatic pressure to do so, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told his British counterpart Wednesday.

"The attitude of the federal government is that we are not supplying arms to Saudi Arabia currently. We will take future decisions dependent on developments in the Yemen conflict," Maas said while hosting the U.K.'s Jeremy Hunt.

Germany imposed a ban in October on arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Economy Minister Peter Altmaier called on other EU countries to do the same, but the U.K. has not brought in a similar ban.

In a letter to Maas obtained by Spiegel this week, Hunt said he was “very concerned about the impact of the German government’s decision on the British and European defence industry."

That's because German manufacturers produce parts needed for the completion of the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Tornado fighter jets being built in the U.K., the letter is reported as saying.

"We understand their position, I think they understand ours," Hunt said in Berlin. "In reality, because the U.K. has a strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia we've been able to play a very important part in making the Stockholm [peace talks on the Yemen conflict] talks happen."

"We don't believe that changing our commercial relationship with Saudi Arabia would help that," he added

Saudi Arabia supports Yemen's President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in his long-running fight against Houthi rebels in the country's brutal civil war.