http://www.turkishpress.com/news/397698/
Ethiopia lashes out at Eritrea, Egypt
Thursday, March 27, 2014
ADDIS ABABA - An Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman has lashed out at
longstanding rival Eritrea, accusing the latter of destabilizing the East
Africa region, while also blasting Egypt for the latter's "malicious" media
campaign against Ethiopia's multibillion-dollar hydroelectric dam project.
"Eritrea's involvement in regional conflicts has been the case for long
now," Ambassador Dina Mufti told foreign journalists at a weekly press
briefing on Thursday.
According to Mufti, Eritrea has played a role in the ongoing conflict in
South Sudan.
"We have circumstantial evidence of Eritrea's involvement [in the South
Sudan crisis]," the spokesman said.
Tensions between Addis Ababa and Asmara have persisted since a bloody
two-year border war - in which tens of thousands were killed - ended in
2000.
As for the row with Egypt over the Nile dam, Mufti said Cairo had launched
a media campaign aimed at turning international opinion against the dam
project.
"The project is a regional project," he said. "The project will not hurt
the interest of Egypt. Rather, it benefits Egypt and other countries of the
region."
Egypt's alleged media campaign, according to Mufti, "won't be in the
interest of Egypt and [in the interest of] the people of Egypt."
Egypt, he added, had walked out of a tripartite committee with Ethiopia and
Sudan that had been formed to assess the dam's potential impact.
Subsequent efforts to bring Egypt back to the tripartite negotiations, said
Mufti, had failed to bear fruit.
The mega-dam project has caused tensions with Egypt, which fears a possible
reduction of its traditional share of Nile water.
Addis Ababa, however, insists the project will benefit downstream states
Sudan and Egypt, both of which will be invited to purchase electricity
generated by the dam.
Received on Thu Mar 27 2014 - 15:58:46 EDT