Saudi Arabia accuses Ethiopia of posing threats to Sudan & Egypt

[Ethiopian Dude]

Do women drive in Ethiopia and is there a list of professions maintained by MOL where women are allowed and not allowed to work? Also is there an enforcement of wearing certain over-dress like abaya when going outdoors?



I see a connection here between a failed state and failed idealogy!

LOL yes women drive in ethiopia and they work in all sectors of the job market.

 

[somebozo]

LOL yes women drive in ethiopia and they work in all sectors of the job market.

Do they need a compulsory male chaperone when travelling abroad or are considered half when it comes to court testimony?

 

[Arabian Legend]

FOA, KSA has invested heavily in Ethiopian agri sector to ensure its own food security therefore considerable amount of Saudi and GCC investment is at stake if any action against Ethiopia is to ensue and not to mention this agriculture investment drive is a motivational factor behind the dam.

Saudi Billionaire to Invest $3.4 Billion in Ethiopia Over Next Five Years - Bloomberg

Saudi Billionaire to Invest $600 Million in Ethiopia Cooking Oil - Businessweek

Saudi investors to put $100 mln into Ethiopia farm | Reuters

Saudi-Ethiopian trade climbs to SR 849 m | ArabNews

Secondly, KSA provided full support to peaceful settlement of South Sudan dispute and extended full diplomatic recognition to South Sudan. The root of Sudan vs South Sudan conflict lies in the same state level identity crisis we see affecting a number if Islamic countries.

that doesn't mean we agree on their childish behaviors toward Sudan or the case of Ethiopia.

Now on topic about the dam!

Cost and financing

The Ethiopian government has stated that it intends to fund the entire cost of the dam by itself. It has issued a bond targeted at Ethiopians in the country and abroad to that end.[6] The turbines and associated electrical equipment of the hydropower plants costing about US$1.8 billion are reportedly financed by Chinese banks. This would leave US$3 billion to be financed by the Ethiopian government through other means.[13] The estimated US$4.8 billion construction cost, apparently excluding the cost of power transmission lines, corresponds to more than 15% of Ethiopia’s Gross Domestic Product of US$31 billion in 2009.

The Chinese will not be happy about anyone meddling in their business.


Impact on Sudan and Egypt
The precise impact of the dam on the downstream countries is not known. Egypt and Sudan fear a temporary reduction of water availability due to the filling of the dam and a permanent reduction because of evaporation from the reservoir. The reservoir volume is about equivalent to the annual flow of the Nile at the Sudanese-Egyptian border (65.5 billion cubic meter). This loss to downstream countries would most likely be spread over several years.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are in the process of establishing an International Panel of Experts to review and assess the study reports of the Ethiopian Great Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. The panel will consist of 10 members; 6 from the three countries and 4 international in the fields of Water Resources and Hydrologic modelling, Dam Engineering, Socioeconomic, and Environmental. The dam would retain silt. It would thus increase the useful lifetime of dams in Sudan – such as the Roseires Dam, the Sennar Dam and the Merowe Dam – and of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. The beneficial and harmful effects of flood control would affect the Sudanese portion of the Blue Nile, just as it would affect the Ethiopian part of the Blue Nile valley downstream of the dam.[21] Nevertheless, Sudan and Egypt have serious concerns about the project; Egypt has requested that it be allowed to inspect the design and the studies of the dam, in order to allay its fears, but Ethiopia has denied the request unless Egypt relinquishes its veto on water allocation.[22]

There is no international treaty for the sharing of the waters of the Blue Nile between Ethiopia on the one hand and Sudan and Egypt on the other hand. A 1959 Nile treaty between Egypt and Sudan does not include Ethiopia. A Nile treaty signed by the upper riparian states in 2010, the Cooperative Framework Agreement, has not been signed by either Egypt or Sudan.[23] The Nile Basin Initiative provides a framework for dialogue among all Nile riparian countries.

And now some News:

Ethiopia outraged over Saudi official

in unprecedented manner, news that stirred controversy came out from Cairo, Egypt following a “harsh” criticism filled remark by Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Defense Minister, Prince Khalid bin Sultan, against Ethiopia, something totally unexpected by the Ethiopian government and people.

The real intent of the remark made by this senior official of Saudi has raised several questions from different sides. Was it just an echo for Egypt and Sudan being merely a messenger voice? Or really the position of the Royal Kingdom.

Last Wednesday the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Addis Ababa for the latter to give an explanation on the real notion of the remarks made by the defense minister which was made during the Arab Water Council Meeting in Cairo.

“The [Grand] Renaissance dam has its capacity of flood waters reaching more than 70 billion cubic meters of water, and is located at an altitude of 700 meters and if it collapsed then Khartoum will drown completely and the impact will even reach the Aswan Dam,” the Saudi deputy defense minister Khalid Bin Sultan said at the meetings.

“Egypt is the most affected party from the Ethiopian Renaissance dam because they have no alternative water source compared to other Nile Basin countries, and the establishment of the dam 12 kilometers from the Sudanese border is for political plotting rather than for economic gain and constitutes a threat to Egyptian and Sudanese national security” the Sudan Tribune quoted the Saudi official saying.


Meanwhile, Ambassador Abdulbagi bin Ahmad Ajlan told Ethiopian officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the defense minister’s comment is neither his (the ambassador) nor the Royal Kingdom’s position.

Prince Khalid went on saying, “There are fingers messing with water resources of Sudan and Egypt which are rooted in the mind and body of Ethiopia. They do not forsake an opportunity to harm Arabs without taking advantage of it”.


According to the spokesperson of MoFA, Ambassador Dina Mufti, the Ethiopian government has been alarmed after hearing the unexpected news.

After the “harsh” criticism against Ethiopia was made, Prime Minister Hailemarlam Desalegn, together with finance and economic development minister, Sufian Ahmed welcomed a group of Saudi Arabian delegation led by the minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf.

The visit of the delegation was said to be aimed at trade and investment boosting between the two countries.

But nothing came out from the two sides as they discuss the Nile related controversy that sparked the diplomatic dispute.

On the occasion that the two countries signed two loan agreements amounting to a total of 25 million USD with the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD.) At the same occasion, the country also signed avoidance of double taxation agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Critics said that though Saudi Arabia has a concern on the Nile issue with regards to Ethiopia’s dam project, it should not have been publicly disclosed as far as diplomatic relationship is concerned.

While the Saudi official also added that Egypt would be largely affected by this dam, which is scheduled to be completed in six years, because it only has the Nile as water resource. Constructing this dam in Ethiopia at this location has political rather than commercial motives.

“It also threatens the water and national security for Sudan,” he said.

Six months after Hailemariam assumed the premiership following the death of the late Meles Zenawi, the incident can be regarded as the major challenge that Hailemariam has been tested with so far.

There have been a number of exchanges of visits over the years by high level government officials between Ethiopia and the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a number of agreements have been signed to enhance relations. There is a Joint Ministerial Commission that is meant to meet annually to review the progress in all areas of cooperation. The Commission also has the task of suggesting new areas for cooperation and of working towards their implementation.

Trade relations have been on the rise. At present the total volume of trade stands at just over 12 billion birr but this is expected to increase significantly in both quantity and quality.

Investment is a growing area of cooperation and a growing number of Saudi investors are engaged in different sectors in Ethiopia, with a total of 369 million dollars currently involved. The largest investor is Sheikh Mohamed Al-Amoudi, the owner of Midroc, which has interests in hotels and tourism, construction, mining, agriculture, manufacturing and education. All in all there are some 69 companies, in addition to those of Sheikh Al-Amoudi. Investment is growing but taking into account the long-standing relations and strong cultural ties between the two countries, considerably more investment should be expected.


In June 2011, after Hailemariam Desalegn was appointed Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs, he visited Saudi Arabia and he was reportedly said to have had fruitful discussions with officials from the Royal Kingdom. At that time he told the Saudi Gazette at the Jeddah Conference Palace that the Kingdom had requested around 30,000 laborers including housemaids, drivers and technical staff from Ethiopia.

He said that his country would make sure all workers sent to the Kingdom were well trained. For this purpose, he added, there are a number of training centers. Hailemariam said that the environment in his country was conducive to investment. “There are huge investment opportunities in mining, agriculture, tourism, construction and real estate.”

Saudi Arabia, he said, is among the top investors in Ethiopia. “Saudi businessmen have invested around SR 2 billion in agriculture in Ethiopia,” he said. He said the number of Saudi tourists has also gone up due to the ongoing unrest in several countries in the Arab world. “We (Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia) will sign three agreements for the promotion of livestock and agriculture, promotion and protection of investment and avoidance of double taxation,” Hailemariam said.

Back then the deputy prime minister said that they were working on a dam project, which would have a capacity to produce 5,200 megawatts of electricity.

With all these relations, still the question remains regarding how much Hailemariam’s administration handled the matter, would it bring a win-win solution as is the usual rhetoric or is there more determination to challenge any potential opponents as far as the country’s national interest is concerned.

 

[Serpentine]

Guys, stop turning it in to a religious discussion, hate spreading and name calling.
From now on, every provoking,off topic and sectarian post will be followed by infraction.

Don't bring a 'Pink' festival upon yourselves, and behave.

 

[Syrian Lion]

of course show off your muscles against Ethiopia... but not against Israel... to this day Israel still gives Jordan sewer water, instead of pure water...

 

[somebozo]

The whole thing is based on the perceived risk of dam collapsing - well everything comes with a risk and well engineered dams do not collapse over nothing. Beside that it look like Egypt and Sudan are playing the victim card to force more concessions from Ethiopia. Perhaps free electricity!

Perhaps the minister should also threaten military action against those who caused Jeddah floods. Oh wait, incompetency is awarded with higher positions up the political hireachy!

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

of course show off your muscles against Ethiopia... but not against Israel... to this day Israel still gives Jordan sewer water, instead of pure water...

That's why we buy water filters.

 

[Syrian Lion]

That's why we buy water filters.

you should not have to buy filters for drinking water.... anyways its your loss... you gave up clean water and free electricity...

 

[Ethiopian Dude]

Does israel really give sewer water to jordan ?

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Does israel really give sewer water to jordan ?

Yes they do

 

[Abii]

That's why we buy water filters.

wait, you guys have to filter Israel's sewer for consumption?

lmaooo that's lowwwwwww

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

wait, you guys have to filter Israel's sewer for consumption?

lmaooo that's lowwwwwww

Yep, can you even believe it Abii?

 

[somebozo]

you should not have to buy filters for drinking water.... anyways its your loss... you gave up clean water and free electricity...

Does israel really give sewer water to jordan ?

Yes they do

wait, you guys have to filter Israel's sewer for consumption?

lmaooo that's lowwwwwww

Understand sacraism my friend!

Israel, Jordan taking steps to clean up Jordan River water Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

 

[Syrian Lion]

Understand sacraism my friend!

Israel, Jordan taking steps to clean up Jordan River water Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

Israel still gives Jordan sewer water. and it the reality... Israel have many times promised Jordan to give them clean water, but that was just talks, no actions...

 

[agentny17]

how is it damaging to Egypt? Do you understand how a hydro power plant works? the water will still flow to Egypt after it generates power it wont just magically disappear we are not diverting the flow of the Nile to the red sea or Kenya it will go to where it always went. If the westerners supported us then why did the IMF deny us a loan for the dam? the dam is being funded 80% locally and the rest is from the bank of china.

No war can solve this. Historic ties between both nations are so deep and strong, and war would not be a smart decision. I think we all have to wait for this; "International panel of experts is set to announce its findings on the impact of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile’s flow in May 2013". Egypt has it's concerns, and Ethiopia has its aspirations, and i think we can all understand where each party is coming from.

Good to know that Egypt and Saudi Arabia relations are still strong even with MB in power.