Eleven days before an election that he is set to lose, President Trump attempted to bolster his foreign policy credentials – by encouraging a murderous dictator to commit a crime against humanity.
In a telephone call with leaders of Sudan and Israel, held in front of reporters as if foreign policy is a kind of reality tv show, Trump expressed support for Egypt’s dictator Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in his conflict with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Trump lamented his administration’s failure to broker an agreement between Ethiopia and Egypt over Nile water rights.
“So the deal was done, and it’s a very dangerous situation, because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way,” Trump said. “And they’ll end up blowing up the dam. And I said it — and I say it loud and clear, ‘They’ll blow up that dam.’”
Trump’s statements are a new low for a president who doesn’t ever seem to reach the bottom. Bombing the GERD would devastate the lives and livelihoods of millions of Ethiopians and trigger reprisals that would inflict similar costs on Egyptians.
Mesfin Mekonen