A plan by the United States to give over $50 billion in arms to Middle Eastern nations has sparked intense opposition from top German officials.

Germany’s foreign ministry coordinator for German-American relations, Karsten Voigt, criticized U.S. plans to arm Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Israel. Adding more weapons into an area bristling with arms will not produce peace, he said.

“The region is not suffering from a lack of arms but from a lack of stability. I have strong doubts whether stability could be achieved with these weapons,” Voigt said on Tuesday.

The U.S. plan is an attempt to shore up allies and maintain the balance of power in the region, according to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Arab countries would receive U.S. arms to counterbalance Iranian and Syrian military upgrades. Israel would be given arms to not only counterbalance Iran and Syria, but also to counterbalance Saudi Arabia’s upgraded arsenal. State-of-the-art military equipment Saudi Arabia would receive includes satellite-guided bombs, improved missile defenses, new navy ships, and air force upgrades.

The U.S. proposal evoked especially strong criticism in Germany, a country which is trying to position the European Union as the new Middle East peace broker. Politicians from both Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (cdu) and the Social Democrats slammed the U.S. plan.

Ruprecht Polenz, a cdu member and the head of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, called the region a “powder keg,” and said America threatened to destabilize the whole region. “If you put more weapons into a powder keg, you just increase the risk without making the region more stable,” he said.

Polenz also says the U.S. is running the risk of creating a Middle East arms race.

Social Democrat Johannes Jung supported Polenz, saying, “The region needs to be disarmed, not armed.” He also went so far as to say, “As so often, all level-headed people are waiting for a new U.S. administration.”

Decades of violence in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, and recurring wars in Iraq have injured America’s reputation in the Arab world and consequently its effectiveness as a peace broker. Look for America to disengage from the Middle East and for Europe to actively fill the power vacuum.