Alwaght- The visit of high-level Saudi delegate to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) during a short visit to the country on Friday was faced with anger in Cairo that viewed it as an act of revenge, Middle East Eye news site reported.
Ahmed al-Khateeb, a senior adviser at the Saudi royal court and board chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), visited the site and met Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and other officials to discuss GERD’s construction project.
The dam project is a source of heated tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia. Many Egyptians fear that the waters of the Nile will drop with the opening of the Ethiopia dam.
The 6,000-megawatt GERD, which is not yet 70 percent complete, is situated close to Ethiopia’s border with Sudan. While Ethiopia hopes it will be able to export energy generated by the dam, Egypt has long expressed concerns that the dam might reduce the amount of Nile water it receives, thus affecting its main source of irrigation water.
Khateeb’s trip came after the Saudi agriculture minister visited Ethiopia last week, making it the second visit by a Saudi official to Addis Ababa in less than a week.
Relations between Cairo and Riyadh have soured since Egypt voted in favor of a UN Security Council draft resolution by Russia regarding the Syrian war.
On Saturday, Egyptian news commentator Mohamed Ali Khayr called on Riyadh to "review its policies before it can only blame itself for what ensues".
"Egypt is not obliged to continue to contain its reactions towards Saudi Arabia... any interference [by Saudi Arabia] in the GERD project implies a direct threat to Egypt’s national security," he said on Egyptian TV.
Khayr went as far as accusing Saudi policy makers of being "amateurs" that have caused bilateral relations between the two countries to completely break down as a result of this visit.
Ahmed Moussa, another journalist, threatened Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states that if they were to invest in Ethiopia, their investment would be lost in the Nile.
"The GERD will not last forever, a volcano might erupt at any moment. So for those looking to invest billions [of dollars] in this project, your money might as well be going to waste," said Moussa.
Egyptian media personalities were joined in their denunciation of the Saudi visit by several academics who voiced strong criticisms against the Kingdom for its policy.
"You will soon hear that we [Egypt] have the capacity to intervene in the (Persian) Gulf region's affairs and provide support for the royals who oppose current Saudi policies," Tarek Fahmy, a lecturer at the American University in Cairo, told viewers of Sada al-Balad.
Fahmy warned Saudi Arabia that Egypt’s patience is waning and that Cairo will no longer accept actions that threaten its national security.
