German politician urges new government to stop arms exports to Egypt, Saudi Arabia

The candidate for the Presidency of Germany’s Greens Party, Omid Nouripour, has called on the new government in Berlin to stop arms exports to Egypt and Saudi Arabia over human rights violations.

“German arms exports to Egypt and Saudi Arabia should not take place because of the problematic policies of both countries,” Nouripour said in a statement published by the German News Agency, on Wednesday.

According to the statement, both Cairo and Riyadh are involved in the war on Yemen and practice systematic violations of human rights.

For almost three years, Egypt has ranked first among the countries importing German weapons.

Preliminary figures published earlier this week by the German Economic Affairs and Climate Action Ministry showed that Germany exported arms worth €9.35 billion Euros ($10.65 billion) last year which represents a 61 per cent increase from 2020. According to the figures, Egypt has imported a majority of the German arms, with €4.34 billion principally air defence systems and maritime equipment.

Nouripour has strongly criticised the German authorities’ decision to continue arms exports to those countries, saying it has nothing to do with the spirit of the ruling coalition agreement.”

Under the coalition agreement, the new German government represented by Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats, the Green Party and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) pledged to restrict arms exports, especially to countries outside the European Union and NATO.

READ: Germany’s arms sales hit record high with almost half of weapons going to Egypt