Green politician Nouripour insists on a ban on arms exports for Egypt

Egypt's dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the inauguration of a Suez Canal extension in summer 2015

Photo: DPA/OFFICE OF THE EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT

No country receives as many weapons from Germany as Egypt.

Last year alone, armaments worth 4.34 billion euros were approved for the country.

The Green politician Omid Nouripour has now called for a stop to German arms deliveries to the current main recipient country.

"German arms exports to Egypt and Saudi Arabia should not be allowed given the problematic policies of both countries," said Nouripour, who is considered a promising candidate for the election of the new Greens chairman at the party conference at the end of January, the dpa news agency in Berlin.

According to Nouripour, the reason stated in the coalition agreement is the participation of both countries in the Yemen war.

There are also systematic human rights violations.

“There are over 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt, and a double-digit number of prisons have been newly built for them.

In the Libyan conflict, Egypt has repeatedly violated the agreements of the international community - including arms deliveries and military logistics," Nouripour said.

Double standards for arms exports

An arms export ban has been in effect for Saudi Arabia since November 2018. The main reason is the participation of the hard-ruled kingdom in the Yemen war. The trigger for the stop was the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul. Egypt, like several other Arab countries, is part of the Saudi Arabian-led war alliance supporting the government in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Despite this, the North African country has held a top position in German arms export statistics for three years.

Shortly before the change of government, when the grand coalition was only in office as an executive, the previous government made up of Union and SPD approved arms exports for 4.91 billion euros.

Here, too, it was mostly about deliveries to Egypt, namely three warships and 16 air defense systems from the armaments manufacturers ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Diehl Defence.

"The decision is regrettable and has nothing to do with the spirit of the coalition agreement," said Nouripour.

mrc/dpa