Omid Nouripour

Omid Nouripour (Persian: امید نوری‌پور‎; born June 18, 1975) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who currently serves as a member of the Bundestag, representing the state of Hesse. He is his party's spokesman on foreign affairs, and is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and a deputy member of the Defence Committee. He is of Iranian background and moved to Germany as a child.

Omid Nouripour
Member of the Bundestag
for Hesse
Assumed office
1 September 2006
Preceded byJoschka Fischer
Personal details
Born (1975-06-18) 18 June 1975
Tehran, Iran
CitizenshipIranian–German
Political partyAlliance 90/The Greens

Early life and education

Nouripour was born in Tehran.[1] In 1988, aged 13, Nouripour immigrated to Frankfurt, West Germany, with his family.[2] He studied German, political science, law, sociology, philosophy and economics at the University of Mainz, but did not earn a degree.[3] In 2002, he became a German citizen.[2] Because Iran does not allow its citizens to relinquish their citizenship, that country considers him an Iranian citizen as well.

Political career

Nouripour was elected to the German Federal Parliament in 2006 as the second member of Iranian descent (after Michaela Noll-Tajdadod), taking the vacated seat of the former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.[4]

Between 2006 and 2013, Nouripour was a member of the Defence Committee and the Budget Committee, where he served as his parliamentary group's rapporteur on the budgets of the Federal Foreign Office (AA), the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the Federal Court of Auditors (BRH) and the Office of the Federal President.

Since 2014, Nouripour has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also served on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid from 2014 until 2017. He has written widely on migration and is the speaker of the Green Party on migration issues and refugees.[5]

In July 2015, Nouripour joined Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a trip to Cuba. It was the first time a German foreign minister had visited Cuba since the German reunification in 1990.[6][7]

Nouripour has been chairman of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group since 2018.[8] Already since 2014, he has also been serving as deputy chairman of the German-US Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-Indian Parliamentary Friendship Group.

In June 2020, Nouripour became a member of the new-founded Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.[9]

Political positions

Military procurement

In 2011, Nouripour accused the aerospace company EADS of strong-arming European governments into agreeing to fund the Airbus A400M Atlas by falsely suggesting the Franco-German-led company might otherwise collapse.[10]

Relations with the Middle East and the Arab world

Speaking on the 2012 Bahraini uprising, Nouripour commented that “[a]s the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is supporting the state-repression inside Bahrain, Iran acts as the protector of the Shia.”[11]

In a study sent to the German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle in May 2012, Nouripour and Hans-Josef Fell proposed that Germany should help Iran expand renewable energy sources to solve the conflict over the nation’s nuclear program and prevent a war in the region.[12] Under the umbrella of the German parliaments’ sponsorship program for human rights activists, Nouripour has been raising awareness for the work of the persecuted Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh since 2012.[13]

When Turkey formally asked NATO in November 2012 to set up missiles on its border with Syria due to growing concern about spillover from the civil war, Nouripour warned against Germany and NATO "letting themselves be drawn into the Syria conflict with no basis in international law."[14] However, he later voted for posting two German Patriot missile batteries to help bolster security along Turkey's border with Syria in the context of the NATO-backed operation Active Fence in 2015.

For years Nouripour opposed listing the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. However, after the 2012 Burgas bus bombing, he stated that “it’s now time to isolate Hezbollah.”[15]

In May 2014 and February 2016,[16] Nouripour visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan to learn more about the plight of Syrians fleeing the violence in the Syrian civil war that had been going on since 2011.

Nouripour sits on the advisory board of the German Palestinian Society (Deutsch-Palästinensische Gesellschaft) which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) which has been designated as anti-semitic by the German Bundestag in May 2019.[17] In February 2020, German politician and then member of the advisory board of the German Palestinian Society, Olaf in der Beek introduced an anti-BDS resolution to the advisory board of the German Palestinian Society that was identical to the anti-BDS measure passed by the Bundestag in May 2019. This was however rejected by the board following which in der Beek resigned his seat on the board.[18]

In 2013 Nouripour co-sponsored an initiative at the German Bundestag aimed at singling out Jewish products from the West Bank with a labeling system. [19][20]

Relations with the African continent

Nouripour has in the past voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, as for example in Darfur, Sudan (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018), South Sudan (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018), Mali (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018), the Central African Republic (2014), and Liberia (2015).

On Somalia, Nouripour has a mixed voting record. He has supported Operation Atalanta (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2018) but for a period of time regularly abstained from votes on extending the mandate for the mission (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015). He also voted against German participation in EUTM Somalia (2014 and 2016), and abstained in 2015. After reports in 2010 that the German company Asgaard had signed a deal with a Somali warlord to provide security services, Nouripour accused the German government of not doing enough in the past to regulate private security firms.[21]

Other activities

References
  1. Chase, Jefferson (8 May 2018). "Iran nuclear deal: Germany's special role and plans". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  2. Brenner, Yermi (2 May 2018). "Conversation with German Politician Omid Nouripour". thenewhumanitarian.org. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  3. Caspari, Lisa (5 August 2016). ""Der Wähler schaut nicht auf den formalen Lebenslauf" (Interview with Omid Nouripour)". Zeit.de (in German). Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  4. Speakers: Omid Nouripour Conference on Germany in the Modern World at Harvard University, April 11–12, 2008.
  5. Speakers: Omid Nouripour Conference on Germany in the Modern World at Harvard University, April 11–12, 2008.
  6. Foreign Minister Steinmeier's first visit to Cuba paves way for stronger ties Deutsche Welle, July 17, 2015.
  7. Ivo Oliveira (July 16, 2015), Germany’s Steinmeier visits Cuba Politico Europe.
  8. Gremienbesetzungen der Grünen Bundestagsfraktion Green Party Parliamentary Group, press release of April 17, 2018.
  9. Ismar, Georg; Wang, Ning (22 June 2020). "Das böse Erwachen aus der China-Goldgräberstimmung". tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  10. Tim Hepher and Alexandria Sage (May 13, 2011), Record cash pile boosts EADS but draws flak Reuters.
  11. Souad Mekhennet (January 25, 2012), In Bahrain, Worries Grow of Violent Shiite-Sunni Confrontation International Herald Tribune.
  12. Stefan Nicola (May 25, 2012), German Greens Urge Solar Aid for Iran to End Nuclear Row Bloomberg.
  13. Nasrin Sotoudeh - Symbolfigur der Unterdrückten Deutscher Bundestag, December 3, 2012.
  14. Turkey to ask NATO for missiles on Syria border -German daily Reuters, November 17, 2012.
  15. Nicholas Kulish and Matthew Brunwasser (February 4, 2013), Europeans Await Report on Bus Blast in Bulgaria New York Times.
  16. Bundestagspräsident Lammert besucht deutsche Truppen in Incirlik und reist zu Gesprächen nach Jordanien und Kuwait Deutscher Bundestag, press release of February 5, 2016.
  17. https://www.dw.com/en/german-parliament-condemns-anti-semitic-bds-movement/a-48779516
  18. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/exclusive-german-mp-resigns-from-palestinian-ngo-over-support-for-bds-629480
  19. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/exclusive-german-mp-resigns-from-palestinian-ngo-over-support-for-bds-629480
  20. (https://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/133/1713339.pdf
  21. 'Shadow Foreign Policy': Somali Warlord Hires German Mercenaries to Provide Security Services Spiegel Online, May 25, 2010.
  22. Circle of Friends Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Das Progressive Zentrum.
  23. Board German Africa Foundation.

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