Tuesday, March 03, 2020

Egypt’s El Sisi holds military meeting amid tensions with Ethiopia

(March 3, Cairo))--Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El Sisi on Tuesday chaired a meeting of his military’s top brass, according to a cryptic statement by his office that gave no details.

The statement said the meeting took place at the Defence Ministry and was attended by the Defence Minister Mohammed Zaki and chief of staff Mohammed Farid.

Significantly, the meeting was held amid heightened tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over the impact of a giant dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile which Cairo insists will significantly reduce its vital share of the river’s water thus hurting its economy and threatening its good security.

Ethiopia stayed away from a meeting in Washington last week that was supposed to see the signing of a US-brokered agreement with Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream nations, to govern the operation of the $4 billion dam and the filling of a water reservoir behind it.

Ethiopia said it had stayed away to allow more time for domestic consultations on the issue and rejected the draft accord presented by the US. It also took exception to a US assertion counselling Addis Ababa not to test or fill the reservoir before an agreement was reached. Read more from The National

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