Egyptian politicians caught in on-air Ethiopia dam gaffe – BBC
Egyptian politicians are embarrassed after being caught suggesting hostile acts against Ethiopia to stop it from building a dam across the Blue Nile. They were inadvertently heard on live TV proposing military action at a meeting
Egyptian politicians are embarrassed after being caught suggesting hostile acts against Ethiopia to stop it from building a dam across the Blue Nile.
They were inadvertently heard on live TV proposing military action at a meeting called by President Mohammed Morsi.
Ethiopia last week started diverting the flow of the river in preparation for the $4.2bn hydroelectric dam.
The Blue Nile is one of two major tributaries of the Nile.
On completion, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would be Africa’s largest.
It is expected to produce 6,000 megawatts, and its reservoir is scheduled to start filling next year.
Apology
As the participants did not know that the meeting was being aired live by state TV, they spoke their minds unreservedly.
Their suggestions centred around military action as a decisive response to what one of them called a “declaration of war”.
One of the politicians suggested sending special forces to destroy the dam; another thought of jet fighters to scare the Ethiopians; and a third called for Egypt to support rebel groups fighting the government in Addis Ababa.
“This could yield results in the diplomatic arena,” liberal politician and former presidential candidate Ayman Nour told the gathering.
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, the leader of the secular Reform and Development party, said the presidency should have warned the participants in advance that the meeting would be broadcast live.
“I am afraid most of the politicians who attended the meeting were not well informed about such a sensitive topic,” he told the BBC.
“But the statements made during the meeting do not represent the Egyptian official stance. It was just a chat between politicians who were angered by the Ethiopian plans.”
A presidential adviser apologised for failing to warn politicians.
“I am sorry for any unintentional embarrassment,” Bakinam al-Sharqawi said in a statement.
Egypt is the most populous country in the Middle East and highly dependent on the water of the world’s longest river.
Ethiopia’s decision to construct the dam challenges a colonial-era agreement that had given Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic metres.
That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the eight other nations along the 6,700km (4,160-mile) river and its basin.
Those countries have been agitating for a decade for a more equitable accord.
Tesfu June 6, 2013
Honestly speaking i couldn´t believe what i was reading. Eritreans defending Ethiopia more that Ethiopians themselves. Let me clear my stand first i hate DIA and his maffia regim. I do blieve he is leading the country towards disaster.
With that said, how can you speak about the Woyanes as they were angles. Aren´t they equally to be blamed for the current situation we are in?. Don´t tell me they are helping Eritrean regugees, they are doing it for political gains (to weaken DIA) and to recieve money from UN. They will soon recieve 35000 Eritrean from Israel, why just get future favor and money from Isreal. As you are defending them as our sisters / brothers they should have refused. If they really cared about the Eritreans people they should have accepted the final and binding rule and left Badme for long time ago. They could have killed the only excuse DIA has left.
If Egypt want to invade them over Nile, let them do it. A weak Ethiopia might be a better choice than a strong and undemocratic Ethiopia. Don´t tell me we need to have dialog first, beofre they leave Badme. Why should we have a dialg as precondition, when they should have left first according to the ruling and then have dialog.
Yes i do blame DIA for our current situation, since he is the one leading the country. And yes he is using the border issue as excuse to oppress our country, but on one thing is right on is no dialog before they leave our territory and we demarcate the border.
merhawie June 7, 2013
tesfu the moron, no one ask your help.. ethiopia has the might to defend it self. as a banda and son of banda, i solely expect from you nothing else than wish the worst to ethiopia as you and your grandfathers had. how ever, not dream a dream that never be truth. for more than 1000 reasons.
1. as i have heard from an ethiopian official I FOUND THIS MAN DURING THE ARMY EXIBITION THAT ORGANIZEDBY THE ETHIOPIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY(let his name kept only foer me)unlike your stubid shabiya ethiopia has prepared a contengency plan steps A to j ITIS 10 STEPS.AMONG THE FERST CONTENGENCY PLAN IS AS THE EGYPTIAN COUNTERPARTS, USE INTENSIVE DEPLOMATICH MANOVERING. AND THE TOGHEST ONE IS ALSO COME IF THE EGYPTIANS ARE TO HAVE ANY FORCE FULL RESOLUTION. AS MY SOURCE HAS EXPLAINED IT TO ME THAT MAY GOES TO EXTENT THAT TO USE RADEO AXTIVE TO DEXICTED HTE WATER AND DIVERTUING THE RIVER IN SOME WHARE NEAR TO THE CITY OF BAHR DAR, AS SOME ROUMERS, ETHIOPIA HAS ALSO WORKING THIS DIVERTION. BLEAVE ME THE CASE OF BADEME DOESNT CARE ETHIOPIA RIGHT NOW, BUT ETHIOPIA IS NOT AS SIMPLE AS BEFORE 20 YEARS. ITS ARMY CAPABILITY IS THE THERD FROM ALL AFRICA. NEXT TO EGYPT AND SOUTH AFRICA. SO SO, WE NEVER NEED YOUR HELP TESFU THE MORON AND WISH YOU IN ADDITION TO THE 400 PLUS THOUSAN CONEVENTIONAL ARMY,ETHIOPIA HAS THE SON AND DOUGTER THAT WOULD ALWAYS READY TO PULL THEIR COUNTRY FROM ANY KIND ANEMY ATTACK.
Kabbire June 6, 2013
This only shows the savage Arabs disrespect to Africans. This is the reason the racist Arab regimes and their semi literate intellectuals and media kept their stinking mouths shut while half a million Darfurs perished nor did these Arab xenophobes say a word when the sub Saharan Africans were hunted like witches in Libya.
I did not even mention the slavery of my Eritrean brothers and sisters in Egypt’s Sinai and the deportation and jailing of thousands of Eritreans from Egypt, Libya and Sudan.
The sad and shameful part among some Eritreans who went on Sadam Hussien, Gadaffi and Gamal Abdel Nasser so called scholarship is when they pretend more Arab than the Arab and burned Eritrean languages. Some inferiority laced Eritrean monkeys or shall I say Abeed even said “we are Arabs”.
A Darfur man said once the selfish Arab comes to your village only to rape your wife and daughter, kill the man or take him to slavery and burn down your language, history and heritage, so as to wipe your identity.
The Arabs are so selfish they want the entire Abay Nile waters of which 85% comes from the Tikur Abay Blue Nile for their own use only while Ethiopians and other Africans are starving for lack if irrigation water. I have more respect to Meles Zenawi now than before for telling the savage and racist Arabs to get lost for his initiative on the Great Renaissance Abay dam is going to insure Africans get their fair share.
A.Salim June 6, 2013
Kabbire,
Don’t stupid and dishonest. Woyane is doing everything it could to kill the Eritrean people.
A.Salim June 6, 2013
CORRECTION:
Kabbire,
Don’t be stupid and dishonest. Woyane is doing everything it could to kill the Eritrean people.
Haile Michael June 6, 2013
A. Salim,your brain is poisoned with evil eye and jealousy like the your HGDEF masters! Your masters forced all the Eritrean Investors to Exile because of fear of if they grow wealthy they might have the power to overthrow them. One by one they left their beloved people and country.Then they are in fear of the Ethiopian Development. They don’t want the Dam to be built and operational. While they are thinking of Evil, Meles was doing the unthinkable. If they succeed, it is more shame to your Mafia masters! Because they are doing nothing apart from torturing their people. They are arming people, you Idiot!Look what the Weyanes are doing? Think!?
A.Salim June 6, 2013
Your quarrel is with Egypt not with us. Face it.
Kabbire June 6, 2013
you mean we should forget the Eritreans in Arab slavery?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEd8nT66W4s
A.Salim June 6, 2013
That is your way of insulting us. How childish!!
A.Salim June 6, 2013
Kabbire,
That is your way of insulting us. How childish!!
Sofia June 6, 2013
I heard one Egyptian commentator on TV saying that Egypt will lose anything in destroying the dam by sending war planes except the fuel that will be used during to/from. This is the mentality of some Egyptians. They think other African countries are so week to defend themselves. Moreover, as other alternative, they may give arms to Eritrea and other rebel groups in Ethiopia to disturb the stability of ethiopia.
A.Salim June 6, 2013
“I heard one Egyptian commentator on TV saying that Egypt will lose NOTHING in destroying the dam by sending war planes except the fuel that will be used during to/from. This is the mentality of some Egyptians. They think other African countries are so week to defend themselves. Moreover, as other alternative, they may give arms to Eritrea and other rebel groups in Ethiopia to disturb the stability of ethiopia.”
So, what is your problem. Your Woyane through different means is trying to kill the Eritrean people.
Zaul June 6, 2013
The earliest recorde history of Eritrea is to be found in the temples of ancient Egypt, going as far back in history as 3000 B.C, indicating a maritime commerce between the pharaos of Egypt and the local chiefs of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. This was a trade in the exchange of local commodities and products, and included the sale of slaves to the Egyptian courts. It seems from all indications that the relationship between Egypt and the Eritrean coastlines lasted for many centuries. The renowned Italian historian of Africa, Conti Rossini, suggests that the Egyptians around 1500 B.C may have used Adulis, on the Eritrean coast a few miles south of the present port of Massawa, as the port of landing. Their “market place” as far inland as the area known today as Hamasien on the highland plateau.
A second phase of early recorded Eritrean history starts around 800-700 BC with the migration of the Sabeans from Yemen across the red sea. At the time, the Beja people from the eastern part of Sudan had already settled in Eritrea, pushing the original settlers, the Nara and Kunama to the southwestern corner of present day Eritrea. The Yemeni immigrants, known as the Habeshat and Ageazians, were the “Huguenots” of the south Arabian civilization – masons, metalworkers ans artisans, who fled the persecution of the warlords of the Sabean kingdom by migrating to Eritrea and gradually transplanting their civilization to African soil.
These immigrants at first settled along the coastlines of Eritrea, but as the Ptolemaic invasion of Egypt moved southward along the Red sea, the Habeshats and Ageazians moved inland and became assimilated with the Beja highlanders.
They founded many towns like Kohaito, Yeha, Hawulti and Aksum. They made Aksum the seat, and Adulis the port of their civilization. Thus, the famed Aksumite Kingdom, until its decline around the sixth century A.D, due to the invasion of the Ummayads of Arabia and the Beja takeover around 750 A.D. covered the northern part of present day Tigrai, southern Eritrean highlands, and a section of the red sea coast of Eritrea.
After the decline of the Aksumite civilization, five independent Beja kingdoms – Naqis, Baqlin, Bazin, Jarin and Qata emerged; they stretched from Northeastern Sudan to all present day Tigrai. But rivalry among these kingdoms led to continual warfare and eventual disintegration, providing conditions for foreign aggressors to intervene.
oromay June 6, 2013
Zaul, history teacher, what is your message?..
Zaul June 6, 2013
When the Egyptians occupied the Eritrean coastline, they also invade north Sudan, and along with it the Fung/Funj established in eastern Sudan and the western lowlands. BUT AS THE EGYPTIANS ATTEMPTED TO EXPAND THEIR EMPIRE INTO ETHIOPIA, THE THEN EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA – WITH THE HELP OF ERITREANS WHO WERE STRONGLY OPPOSED TO EGYPTIAN RULE IN ERITREA, SOUNDLY DEFEATED THE EGYPTIAN OCCUPYING ARMY AT GUNDET (1875) AND GURA (1876), Eritrean towns near the border with Ethiopia. The Egyptians retreated to the lowlands of Eritrea, leaving the highlands under temporary seizure and control of the Ethiopian emperor, YOHANNES IV.
Zero Le Zero... June 6, 2013
Well, in a way it is a wake up call for our Ethiopian brothers and sisters to realize what the big headed Egyptian mafias are planning. I am sure the Ethiopians are smart enough to defend themselves if it ever goes to that level but for a starter they need to set up a big ass anti-aircraft missiles all aver the dam just in case the bastards loose their mind or have a bad day sometime in the future.
Mr A. Salim, please don’t respond to this, if you do I plead with you to use your real name otherwise I will have to send you to school for a long time. sorry.
Kabbire June 6, 2013
Look how the Egyptian leader exposed his own opposition by inviting them to discuss the Nile Abay river issue without telling them that it was broadcast live.
See in the video below how Arabs act. These are by the way some nave Eritreans hoped will act to free Eritreans languishing in Arab Egyptian slavery who are losing their kidneys, limbs, thousands of dollars and life.
Just look their disrespect to Africans, except the person called Ismat Anwar Sadat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b_mpjU2qIdc
Zaul June 6, 2013
The expansionist Ottoman Turks thereupon seized the Red Sea coastlines of Eritrea, and had established their imperial and colonial power on Eritrean soil by 1557 A.D. This was a colonial rule which lasted more than 300 years. In the same period as the disintegration of the five Beja kingdoms went together with the fall of the western Eritrean lowlands under the control of the Fung Kingdom of Sennar in the Sudan; and their control lasted until the early nineteenth century.
The nineteenth century brought other colonizers into Eritrea. The Turkish empire was fast declining around 1850, and the Egyptian Khedevites began to replace the Turks in the red sea area in 1865. The Egyptians formally took over Eritrea from the Turks, making Massawa their local seat of government. A few years later, in 1869, the Suez Canal was opened and the coastal areas of Eritrea became important market-and-resource areas not only for th khedevite rulers but also for European powers interested in expanding their trade base along the route to India and Far East.
When the Egyptians occupied the Eritrean coastline, they also invade north Sudan, and along with it the Fung/Funj established in eastern Sudan and the western lowlands. BUT AS THE EGYPTIANS ATTEMPTED TO EXPAND THEIR EMPIRE INTO ETHIOPIA, THE THEN EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA – WITH THE HELP OF ERITREANS WHO WERE STRONGLY OPPOSED TO EGYPTIAN RULE IN ERITREA, SOUNDLY DEFEATED THE EGYPTIAN OCCUPYING ARMY AT GUNDET (1875) AND GURA (1876), Eritrean towns near the border with Ethiopia. The Egyptians retreated to the lowlands of Eritrea, leaving the highlands under temporary seizure and control of the Ethiopian emperor, YOHANNES IV.
But Ethiopian occupation of highland Eritrea was short-lived. Ethiopia was fiercely at war on religious grounds with the forces of the Mahdia in the Sudan. Ethiopia was also torn apart by a power struggle between Emperor Yohannes IV of the reigning Tigreans and Menelik of the Amharas. This rivalry was so intense that the Amharas under Menelik stood by and watched Yohannes IV meet his death at a battle against the Mahdists, in order to take the throne. Not only was Menelik’s betrayal confirmed here, but he also started making deals with Italian officials who had already set foot in Eritrea and bought the areas around the port of Assab in 1882. At the time, the British had promised Yohannes IV a permanent control in some parts of Eritrea which the Egyptians had abandoned, if he could help them crush the Mahdia in the Sudan. But Italy’s incursion into Eritrea complicated matters by a fast expansion from the port of Assab in the south to the port of Massawa in the north , and by rapidly pushing towards the highlands of Eritrea. Thus Yohannes IV felt betrayed and opened a third front against the Italians. Some believe the Italian move to colonize Eritrea connived and encouraged by the British, who saw in the development of Italian in the red sea a useful counter to the French, who were by this time seated at Djibouti.
Once again, an African ally was let down for the benefit of a European rival! So when Yohannes IV of Ethiopia was killed in 1889 at the battle of Mettema against the Mahdists, Menelik of the Amharas became Emperor of Ethiopia, and the Italian colonizers completed their occupation of Eritrea.
Zaul June 6, 2013
CONCLUSION : AT EVERY STAGE IN OUR HISTORY, WHEN WE ARE DIVIDED AMONGST OUSELVES AND TAKE OUSIDERS AS ALLIES, WE LOSE. I HOPE HISTORY DOES NOT REPEAT ITSELF THIS TIME.