'Powder Keg'

German Official Warns US Arms for Gulf Could Set Off "Powder Keg"

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats are worried that reported US plans to send a major arms package to Gulf states could inflame a volatile region, a party leader was quoted as saying Monday. The chairman of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee, Ruprecht Polenz, told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau that the Middle East was already a 'powder keg' that an influx of weapons could set off," reports Agence France-Presse.