Egyptian parl’t calls for anti-Qatar steps after Ethiopian meeting

CAIRO – 17 November 2017: The meeting between Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser and Prime Minister of Ethiopia sent a message to the whole world that she is the mastermind behind all conspiracies and incitement methods against Egypt and Arab countries, Member of Parliament Mostafa Bakry said.

“After the failure of the recent talks between Egypt and Ethiopia as a result of Ethiopian stubbornness, Qatar took the chance and immediately invited the Ethiopian Prime Minister to visit Qatar; aiming to give a message to Egypt that Qatar is determined to interfere in Egypt’s issue with the Nile Basin Initiative.”

Commenting on the Ethiopian-Qatari meeting, MP Mohamed Abu Hamid said that Egypt and other boycotting countries should be ready to take severer actions since Qatar refuses to retreat from its aggressive policy toward the Arab countries, whether by backing opponents of the Arab Quarter or by supporting terrorism.

These steps should be taken in accordance with the provisions of international law, Abu Hamid added; pointing out that that there are procedures in the International Court of Justice that Arab countries can take against Qatar.

“Qatar is working against us in the Nile Basin Initiative, and therefore our government should develop plans to face it. We keep saying Qatar is moving against us, when we should be thinking about the moves we ought to take against Qatar,” Abu hamid added.

Deputy of the National Defense and Security Committee of the Parliament, Yahya Kedwani, stated that the Ethiopian prime minister’s visit to Qatar shows that Qatar is a conspirator against Egypt.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn headed to Doha on Monday, directly after the Tripartite National Committee meeting in Cairo failed to approve the initial studies' report on the regional impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad invited the Ethiopian prime minister to discuss ways of enhancing and promoting bilateral relations.

The visit came in the framework of pursuing Qatar’s national political agendas to undermine Egyptian security and stability, a Qatari opposition source revealed to Egypt Today; indicating that they discussed the issue of funding the Renaissance Dam during the visit.

At the same time, the Sudanese president received Qatar Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi and Qatari Ambassador to Sudan Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi to discuss promoting bilateral relations between the two countries.

In addition, Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah met his Ethiopian counterpart, Siraj Fegessa, to discuss the defense and military fields and means of enhancing and developing them, in addition to the exchange of experiences and military training courses.

Cairo hosted the 17th round of the Tripartite National Committee negotiations on Sunday, which was attended by the irrigation ministers of the three Nile Basin states.

It aimed to reach a consensus over the introductory report prepared by the two French firms, BRL and Arterlia, on their technical studies of the dam's potential impact on Egypt’s and Sudan’s share of the Nile’s water, according to Minister of Irrigation Abdel-Ati.

The studies were proposed to begin in late 2016, but required an agreement on methods from the three governments before they could begin.

Abdel-Ati said that committee did not reach an agreement on adopting guidelines. The guidelines were indicated in a report prepared by a technical committee on the effects of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile Basin states after two days of talks.

Abdel-Ati declared that Egypt approves of the report’s outcomes, but the Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers did not express consensus and called for amendments. Egypt halted all negotiations and said that all future decisions are at the hand of the cabinet.

Although Sudan was initially opposed to the dam’s construction, the country has recently warmed to the idea. This could be because Sudan has agreed to purchase electricity from the dam, while the two countries have also agreed to collaborate on a free economic zone.