Egypt says dam dispute with Ethiopia not yet a military one
By Maggie Fick and Aaron Maasho
CAIRO/ADDIS ABABA | Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:00pm EDT
(Reuters) - Egypt's armed forces are not yet involved in a dispute with
Ethiopia over a giant dam on the Nile, a spokesman for the general staff
said on Wednesday, playing down bellicose rhetoric between Cairo and Addis
Ababa.
"This is not a military issue at this stage," Ahmed Mohamed Ali told Reuters
after days of irate exchanges between Africa's second and third most
populous nations over a new hydroelectric plant that Egypt fears will reduce
its vital water supply.
On Monday, Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said he did not want "war" but
would keep "all options open", prompting Ethiopia to say it was ready to
defend the Great Renaissance Dam.
Egypt's previous military rulers had warned against such projects in the
past and last week Egyptian politicians were caught on camera discussing air
strikes or offering support to Ethiopian rebels.
"It's too early to involve the army in this problem at the moment," Ali
said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the commander-in-chief of Egypt's armed forces issued
a statement saying that the military was "ready and able to protect the
nation and preserve its sacred sites".
General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is also the defense minister, made the
comments during a training exercise that included special forces
paratroopers, according to a statement on his Facebook page.
The spokesman said Sisi's words were aimed at giving soldiers at the
training exercise "a message about their role in defending the interests of
Egypt". Analysts said Sisi's comments appeared directed more at groups
planning street protests for and against Mursi's administration at the end
of this month.
Ethiopia has dismissed talk of military action as "psychological warfare".
NO DELAY
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr is expected to travel to Addis
Ababa on Sunday for talks about the dam, but Ethiopia's foreign ministry
said on Wednesday the country had no intention of suspending construction.
Dina Mufti, spokesman at Ethiopia's foreign affairs ministry, told reporters
that talks with Egypt were "in the spirit of Ethiopian interest".
"Ethiopia has always been open and we've always been interested in
discussions," he said, speaking in English.
Dina added "in the strongest possible terms" that Ethiopia would not accept
any proposal to halt or delay construction.
The African Union urged both sides to hold talks to resolve the row.
"It would be important to just have discussions that are open, that look at
how we can have a win-win situation in a new context, not in the context of
the colonial powers, but in the context of pan-Africanism and African
renaissance," the bloc's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a news conference.
With its 84-million population dependent on the Nile, Egypt cites
colonial-era treaties guaranteeing it the lion's share of the water.
Ethiopia and other upstream neighbors, including Kenya, Uganda and Sudan,
say those claims are outdated.
(This story has been corrected to fix the title of General al-Sisi in the
sixth and seventh paragraph)
(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Robin Pomeroy)
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Sudan officially notifies it will halt oil exports
By Hereward Holland
JUBA | Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:32pm EDT
(Reuters) - Sudan officially informed South Sudan on Tuesday that it would
freeze their oil and economic agreements and stop allowing its neighbor to
export crude through its territory within two months.
Sudan on Sunday said it would close the two export pipelines from South
Sudan within 60 days unless Juba gave up support for insurgents operating
across their shared border. South Sudan denies its backs any rebels.
The row, the latest in a series of problems between the former civil-war
foes, threatens to hit supplies to Asian buyers such as
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/china> China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC),
India's ONCG Videsh and Malaysia's Petronas, which run the oilfields in both
countries.
The United States has called on Khartoum to reconsider.
"We would like to inform you that the Ministry of Petroleum will shut down
the processing and transportation facilities in Sudan for the oil received
from South Sudan," read a letter sent from the Sudanese oil ministry to its
South Sudanese counterpart.
"In order to protect the facilities and to avoid any environmental hazards
in the two countries, the shutdown shall be safely and smoothly carried out
during a period of sixty days from the date of 9th June, 2013," it added.
Sudan's foreign ministry confirmed it had sent the letter.
OIL IN PIPELINES WILL BE SOLD
In reaction to the letter, South Sudan's oil minister, Stephen Dhieu Dau,
said his country would abide by Sudan's decision but said it was "political"
and "not based on the technical and economic reasons related to the oil
agreement."
Dau said the oil that had already gone into the pipeline would be sold and
distributed and added that his country was working closely with the
operators to make the shutdown secure and environmentally safe.
"We have now almost produced and sent seven million barrels to the
facilities within the territory of Sudan," he said.
South Sudan is currently pumping around 225,000 barrels a day, Mohammed
Lino, director general for petroleum at the ministry of petroleum and
mining, told reporters.
The African country, which seceded from Khartoum in 2011 under a peace deal
ending decades of civil war, produce around 300,000 bpd until its first
shutdown in January 2012 in a row with Sudan over pipeline fees.
"For block 3 and 7, the average is 185,000 barrels per day," Lino said,
adding that the oil from these areas had reached Port Sudan terminal, the
country's only window to markets.
He said blocks 1,2 and 4 accounted for another 33,000-35,000 barrels and
block 5a between 4,000 and 5,000 bpd.
Diplomats doubt Sudan will actually close the two cross-border export
pipelines because its economy has been suffering without South Sudan's
pipeline fees.
Oil used to be the main source for Sudan's budget until southern secession
in July 2011, when Khartoum lost 75 percent of its oil production and its
status as oil exporter overnight.
Both countries accuse each other of backing rebels on the other's territory,
one of several conflicts stemming from the messy split of what was once
Africa's largest country.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Writing by Yasmine Saleh and Ulf Laessing;
Editing by David Brunnstrom)
Received on Wed Jun 12 2013 - 22:39:41 EDT