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Omid Nouripour

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Omid Nouripour
Nouripour in 2020
Leader of Alliance 90/The Greens
Incumbent
Assumed office
29 January 2022
Serving with Ricarda Lang
Deputy
  • Pegah Edalatian
  • Heiko Knopf
  • Marc Urbatsch
Preceded byRobert Habeck
Member of the Bundestag
for Frankfurt am Main II
Incumbent
Assumed office
26 October 2021
Preceded byBettina Wiesmann
In office
1 September 2006 – 26 October 2021
Preceded byJoschka Fischer
Succeeded bymulti-member district
ConstituencyGreens List
Personal details
Born (1975-06-18) 18 June 1975 (age 49)
Tehran, Imperial State of Iran
Citizenship
  • Germany
  • Iran
Political partyAlliance 90/The Greens
Alma materUniversity of Mainz (no degree)

Omid Nouripour (German pronunciation: [ˈoːmɪt ˈnuːʁipuːɐ̯]; Persian: امید نوری‌پور [oˈmiːd nuːɾiːˈpuːɾ]; born 18 June 1975) is a German-Iranian politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2006, representing the state of Hesse. Since 2022, he has also been serving as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, alongside Ricarda Lang.[1]

Earlier in his career, Nouripour was his parliamentary group's spokesman on foreign affairs, and is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Finance Committee. He is of Iranian background and moved to Germany as a child.

Early life and education

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Nouripour was born in Tehran.[2] In 1988, aged 13, Nouripour immigrated to Frankfurt, West Germany, with his family.[3] He studied German, political science, law, sociology, philosophy and economics at the University of Mainz, but did not earn a degree.[4]

In 2002, Nouripour became a German citizen.[3] Because Iran does not allow its citizens to relinquish their citizenship, that country considers him an Iranian citizen as well.

Political career

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Nouripour was elected to the German Federal Parliament in 2006 as the second member of Iranian descent (after Michaela Noll-Tadjadod), taking the vacated seat of the former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.[5] He has since been representing the Frankfurt am Main II district and was re-elected in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

Nouripour was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2022 and of the Finance Committee from 2021 to 2022. He also served on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid from 2014 until 2017. He has written widely on migration.[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]

In addition to his committee assignments, Nouripour was the chairman of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2018 to 2021.[8]

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and the FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Nouripour led his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights; his co-chairs from the other parties were Heiko Maas and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff.[9]

Political positions

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Military procurement

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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

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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.

Until 2020, Nouripour sat on the advisory board of the German Palestinian Society (Deutsch-Palästinensische Gesellschaft), which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which was designated as anti-semitic by the German Bundestag in May 2019.[17] In the 2019 parliamentary debate on BDS, Nouripour criticised BDS actions like the call for a boycott of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.

In 2013 Nouripour co-sponsored an initiative at the German Bundestag aimed at singling out products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank with a labeling system.[18][19]

Relations with the African continent

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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.[20]

Other activities

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References

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  1. ^ Felix Hackenbruch (28 January 2022), Wer folgt auf Habeck, Baerbock & Co? So setzt sich der nächste Vorstand der Grünen zusammen Der Tagesspiegel.
  2. ^ Chase, Jefferson (8 May 2018). "Iran nuclear deal: Germany's special role and plans". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  3. ^ a b Brenner, Yermi (2 May 2018). "Conversation with German Politician Omid Nouripour". thenewhumanitarian.org. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b 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. ^ Andreas Apetz and Thomas Kaspar (October 22, 2021), Ampel-Koalition: Alle Verantwortlichen, AGs und Themen im Überblick Frankfurter Rundschau.
  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. ^ Knight, Ben (17 May 2019). "German parliament condemns 'anti-Semitic' BDS movement". Deutsche Welle.
  18. ^ "German MP resigns from Palestinian NGO over support for BDS - EXCLUSIVE". 27 May 2020.
  19. ^ Kleine anfrage bundestag.de
  20. ^ 'Shadow Foreign Policy': Somali Warlord Hires German Mercenaries to Provide Security Services Spiegel Online, May 25, 2010.
  21. ^ Advisory Council Berghof Foundation.
  22. ^ Board German Africa Foundation.
  23. ^ Political Advisory Board German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW).
  24. ^ Advisory Board German-Mozambican Society.
  25. ^ Ismar, Georg; Wang, Ning (22 June 2020). "Das böse Erwachen aus der China-Goldgräberstimmung". tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  26. ^ Circle of Friends Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine Das Progressive Zentrum.
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