Seven Egyptian parties and dozens of public figures announced the inauguration of the “Popular Front to Preserve the Nile River” with the aim of the people and the government participating in preserving the river, which represents the lives of Egyptians.
The signatories to the “opening statement” of the Front called on all national forces, parties, unions and public figures to cooperate and work together to form a single row that protects Egypt’s existence, present, future, sovereignty and right to life. The Front launched a campaign to collect more signatures on its statement.
The front’s opening statement, which was issued yesterday, Tuesday, included 7 basic demands, including an immediate halt to the process of the second filling of the dam lake that Ethiopia is currently undertaking, contentment with a storage capacity not exceeding 14 billion cubic meters, and obligating Ethiopia not to establish any future projects on the Nile except After the approval of the downstream countries, and criminalizing the sale of water and converting it into a commodity, and not delivering water outside the borders of the Nile Basin countries, especially Israel.
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The front also includes a number of public figures, including former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, former Minister of Manpower Kamal Abu Eita, former Minister of Health Amr Helmy, former Minister of Higher Education Hossam Issa, and former Captain of Engineers Tariq Al-Nabarawi, in addition to politicians, former MPs and writers. Among them are Haitham Al-Hariri, Khaled Youssef, Abdullah Al-Sanawi, Alaa Abdel-Moneim, Medhat Al-Zahid, and others.
The launch of the front sparked a limited interaction on social media, between a supporter calling for participation and an opponent who believes that the campaign came late after Ethiopia had already started the second filling, or that it is raising the embarrassment of the authority, which is the main responsible for defending Egypt’s rights in the Nile Valley.
Interestingly, one of the media outlets close to the authority and the security services – Nashaat Al-Daihi – revealed a position rejecting the inauguration of the front, and described its formation at this time as untimely fruit, noting that the same people who launched the campaign “went to film at the Renaissance Dam after the events of 2011.” Under the name of popular diplomacy, they were the first bridge over which Ethiopian dreams passed.
Al-Daihi said during the episode of his program “Bil-Warkah wa-al-Qalam” broadcast on the “TeN” satellite channel, owned by an Emirati businessman, “I see and smell a left-wing wind that is not sweet, and Egypt has a strong army capable of achieving what we want, and pressure attempts are futile.” He stressed that Egypt needs popular solidarity behind the leadership, as the waters of the Nile are not the subject of doctrinal and ideological disputes, and an indivisible issue that does not need false heroism.
On May 25, Sudan announced that Ethiopia had already started the second filling of the dam with water, about a year after the first filling, despite the Egyptian-Sudanese rejection, demanding a prior agreement, and repeated Ethiopian confirmation that it does not aim to harm them, and will seek to benefit from it in power and electricity generation projects. .
In the strongest threat since the outbreak of the crisis 10 years ago, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on March 30 that “the Nile waters are a red line, and any harm to Egypt’s water will have a reaction that threatens the stability of the entire region.”
But Ethiopia did not show indifference to Egyptian statements, and continued its plans to build the dam and fill its lake. In fact, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed said two days ago that his country plans to build more than 100 small and medium dams in a number of regions, which the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman considered a statement revealing. Ethiopia’s bad faith with regard to the Nile file.