Eritrea's President Isaias supports Egypt over Ethiopia on Nile river issue
Published 05/15/2010
- 4:17 p.m. GMT
(JT) According to a publication by the Eritrean Ministry of Information, President Isaias Afwerki has reached an agreement with Egypt on various bilateral matters. President Isaias Afewerki said the Nile Littoral States (Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda etc) are however making the "wrong agreements and regulations" on the use of the Nile river. In an interview with Egyptian Television, Isaias said the position of upstream Nile countries "not only aggravates the situation but also creates tension. "
On May 14, upstream Nile river countries signed a new Nile treaty to replace old colonial treaties. The old treaties between Egypt and Sudan as well as with the old British Empire awarded Egypt nearly full control of the Nile resources despite Egypt contributing less than 5 percent to the river. The new agreement came after ten years of negotiations for equitable use of the river.
The new treaty allows the upstream nations to build hydroelectric dams and large scale irrigation projects along the Nile river. Some Egyptian and Sudanese officials have reacted angrily over the new treaty and demanded that Ethiopia and other upstream nations use the rain instead of the river, despite failing rains in Ethiopia have caused several droughts that killed tens of thousands of people.
However, some Egyptian economists have advised the Cairo government to invest in development projects in upstream nations in order to import food and electric power from countries like Ethiopia instead of threatening war on all east African countries.
Issayas Afewerqi supports Mubarack over the populist dictator Meles Zenawi on the basis of "THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND."
After all these African dictators with Meles at its head have caused lots of harm to the Eritrean people whose land piece is being illegally occupied by Meles as well as Eritrea being unjustifiably expelled from the Union. :)
Why reward a hedonistic minority dictator only working for public relations propaganda for winning the coming election in the name of Ethiopia while in fact killing Ethiopia.
Afewerqi provides healthy power counterbalance in that troubled Horn region. Otherwise it will only be a grading ground for petty Mafia dictators.
Of course President Isayas will support any one in the world that stands against Ethiopia.
He acts not based on any kind of principle or foreign policy, rather on a pesonal grudges. So him supporting Egypt over Ethiopia is not surprise at all. It is business as usual.
Although, I hate Ethiopian regime for it's human right record and for their stupid tactic to stay on power, I have to applaud them for protecting the countries interest.
Therefore, it is time to say to Arabs no more total control over Nile river because we have plenty people at home to feed. Arabs have enough oil to stand on themselves, may be if they give us some of their oil, we should be more generous to let them have total control over Nile River. If they don't, they have to shut up! We must use our river and they have to use their oil.
