Ethiopia: Egyptian Dream, Ethiopian Challenges

It is now almost a year since Egyptian politicians were inadvertently caught on live television broadcasting the proposal of military action to sabotage the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) at a meeting called by the then Egyptian President, Mohammed Morsi. During this meeting, which was triggered by Ethiopia’s diversion of the Blue Nile to make way for the construction of the GERD, participants suggested hostile acts against Ethiopia to stop it from building the Dam.

Their suggestions were all centred on military action to curb what they claimed to be a threat to Egyptian national security. To pick some of the suggestions, Ayman Nour, head of the Ghad Party, suggested spreading rumours that Egypt is buying military planes in order to create the impression that it is planning an airstrike to destroy the dam. Yunis Makhyun, who heads the Islamist Nur Party, on his part, said the Dam constitutes a strategic danger for Egypt, requiring it to support Ethiopian rebels who would put pressure on the Ethiopian government.

Others raised the possibility of sending special forces in to destroy the dam. These suggestions have no power to change anything considering the stance of Ethiopia on the GERD, but there is the necessity to be vigilant enough towards these suggestions.
After these embarrassing statements on live transmission, several commentators, including Egyptians, forwarded severe criticisms against these politicians. But I have doubts as to whether the majority of the critics from the Egyptian side were against the suggestions or against the intention of the live transmission of such a meeting.\

On the other hand, the Ethiopian Government did not perceive it as something different to the usual bullying by Egypt when it comes to the Nile issue. The spokesperson of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Getachew Reda, went to the extent of saying the suggestions were “day dreaming!”

Nevertheless, the government has not undermined what was being suggested by the politicians, but rather summoned the resident ambassador of Egypt to Ethiopia and seek an explanation about the hostile remarks. Whatever the reactions were, there were two possibilities: either the incident was just the customary bullying style of the Egyptians or the Egyptian government are actually considering what was mentioned. Considering some recent developments in the region (the Horn of Africa), which seem to have been initiated by Egypt, I am obliged to accept the latter scenario that the Egyptian government is approving what was proposed by the politicians.

(AddisFortune)