Washington (AFP)
US President Donald Trump on Friday expressed his anger with Ethiopia over the construction of a massive dam on the Nile and appeared to suggest that Egypt could destroy it.
Trump made the remarks by announcing a groundbreaking normalization deal between U.S. ally Israel and Sudan, which like Egypt fears Ethiopia is depleting scarce water resources.
“It is a very dangerous situation because Egypt will not be able to live this way,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office with the leaders of Sudan and Israel on loudspeaker.
“They will eventually blow up the dam. And I said it and I’m saying it loud and clear – they’ll blow up this dam. And they have to do something, ”Trump said.
“They should have stopped it long before it started,” Trump said, regretting that Egypt was in a domestic uproar when the Ethiopian Renaissance Grand Dam project began in 2011.
Trump – a close ally of general-turned-Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi – had accepted Cairo’s calls for mediation on the dam, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin leading the talks.
The State Department said in September it was cutting aid to Ethiopia over its decision to start filling the dam despite not having a deal with downstream countries.
“I had an agreement made for them and unfortunately Ethiopia broke it, which they should not have done. It was a big mistake, ”Trump said.
“They’ll never see this money if they don’t buy into this deal,” he said.
Ethiopia says the $ 4 billion project is critical for its electrification and development needs and has expressed hope to start operations in early 2021.
Egypt depends on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water.
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdulla Hamdok, when asked by Trump on the loudspeaker about the dam, expressed appreciation for US diplomacy and said his government wanted an “amicable solution soon” between the three countries.
© 2020 AFP
I WISH!
INVITATION TO H.E. PRESIDENT TRUMP TO VISIT RURAL ETHIOPIAN WOMEN TO WITNESS THEIR SUFFERINGS FROM SMOKE SUFFOCATION USING DUNG FOR COOKING LACK OF ELECTRICITY.
RESPECTFULLY!!
I invite H.E. president Trump USA to visit rural Ethiopian women’s household kitchen full of smoke, crying eyes and difficult to breathe because they use the dung of animals even difficult to get wood logs. During the election campaign, I heard you saying that “USA women love me”. What about Ethiopian women suffering from lack of electricity which I mentioned above. Please understand that 65 % of Ethiopians do not have access to electricity while Egyptians have 100 % coverage of electricity. Why a super power country president misses on the ground sufferings and miseries one of the poorest countries in the world?
I am hopeful that you will visit Ethiopian rural women after the election and after that, I am sure that you will order not only one grand dam but 2 or 3 or 4 more grand dams like the Nile dam to be built funded by the USA. When you visit you will cry, even your tears not stoppable, it will flow like the Nile RENAISSANCE DAM. I will pray for your health, and please do good to Ethiopia and for your lasting legacy, please remember also that Ethiopia is god’s first choice blessed country, among the first African country to accept Christianity, one of the first countries after Israel to accept Judaism, the first country to officially recognize Islam and shelter Muslims from the then Saudi anti -Islam Arabia attackers, so our prayers are so powerful, and we will never surrender to any misjudgment influences, attacks and so on. Remember that Ethiopians like and admire USA America. The dam never harms Egyptians, Ethiopians will not harm Egyptians, they support their prosperity.
* * WITH RESPECT, I AM LONGING AND BEGGING FOR YOUR RESPONSE WITHIN 3 DAYS! VISIT ETHIOPIA! VISIT ETHIOPIA!
LONG LIVE ETHIOPIA, USA and EGYPT