TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Ethiopia says $4 billion project is indispensable for its electrification and development needs
US President Donald Trump on Friday voiced anger at Ethiopia over its construction of a huge dam on the Nile River and appeared to suggest that Egypt may destroy it.
Trump made the remarks as he announced a breakthrough normalisation deal between US ally Israel and Sudan, which like Egypt fears that Ethiopia will use up scarce water resources.
"It’s a very dangerous situation because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office with leaders of Sudan and Israel on speakerphone.
"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. And they have to do something," Trump said.
"They should have stopped it long before it started," Trump said, regretting that Egypt was in domestic tumult when the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project began in 2011.