As they say ‘there is no fool like an old fool.’

Ethiopian Herald

“Inflexibility” is the cardinal defining attribute of Egyptian negotiating parties though they presented what was expounded with their accomplices. Their inability to adapt to a contemporary reality has been manifesting over and over again in the successive technical talks, proving the utter defeat they suffer in the diplomatic front.

Egyptian parties become an obstacle to the signing and ratification of the Cooperative Framework of Agreement on the Nile (CFA), which was negotiated for nearly a decade. Of course, most of the Nile riparian countries have signed and ratified the document. The Egyptians unruliness has been wasting various opportunities which could have otherwise helped produce tangible agreement on the initial filling and annual operation of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Not only has their greedy position disgraced Africa before the sight of international community, as they toiled to prevent Ethiopia from securing financial access for projects that use waters of the Nile, but they have also once again revealed their prejudice to Africans through continuing insistence to restore the 1959 colonial law.

This is not to mention the lack of trust and confidence they exhibited on AU when they repeatedly call on external parties either to observe the talks or put pressure on Ethiopia.

The Egyptians sham to the ongoing technical talks was exposed even earlier. In addition to backtracking from the main issue of GERD talks, their senior government officials are mongering war. On June 15, 2020, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry was quoted as saying: “Egypt will seek other options, including going to the United Nations Security Council.”

What are the other options then?

Of course, this is a usual rhetorical whistle that the Egyptians blow all the time. Its only elected late president Mohamed Morsi detailed it under the catchphrase “all options are open.” He also stressed that if what they call it as their water share decreases, their blood is the alternative. Hence, Shoukry’s remark is nothing but a continuation of threatening war in response to “non-compliance” to the colonialist agreement of 1959. If the Nile is regarded as Egyptians’ blood drop, what makes it Ethiopia’s useless rope? Undeniably, natural right pretty excellently prevails over obsolete colonial-oriented one. Egypt shall think over its twisted position!

This rigid stance they have been portraying would make Egyptians pay an unbearable cost. Ethiopians abhor war. They know the cost of war better than anyone else, and so do Egyptians. Ethiopia has the upper hand to secure victory both over the diplomatic and any of the “options’ they may take. Over and beyond, it is well known to history that Ethiopians never lost a war. Most of the time, the war ends before it even starts.

Those that had attempted to undermine Ethiopia’s sovereignty did not live to tell the story. Attempts to control the origins of the Nile were futile. The battlefields of Gundert and Gura have kept the stories fresh and alive. Another round of attempts to control the origin with old-fashioned accord rings in one’s mind so the saying goes: ‘there is no fool like an old fool.’ War drum beating would deafen their own ears at the end of the day.

source Ethiopian Herald