Nile| Egypt: Spy-Chief dismayed, President to hold ‘damage control’ meeting

Egypt’s Arabic news outlet Elwata News reported that the intelligence community is dismayed by the live broadcast of the meeting where Egyptian politicians discussed sabotaging the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam.Raafat Shehata - Chief of Egypt's General Intelligence Service

Elwata News reported:

There is anger in the corridors of the Eygptian General Intelligence Service, after President Morsi and a number of political forces discussed live on air political issues that would harm Egyptian national security.

The intelligence chief expressed his protest about the meeting to the President.

The intelligence chief expressed his anger to President Morsi on what discussed about the Renaissance dam and transmitted directly on television, stressing that the transmission of the discussion hurts all arrangements carried out politically and disturbs what Egypt had planned to deal with the issue of the dam.

The source also stated that “what happened is incomprehensible and demands an explanation” and some countries may consider it military incitement and could impose sanctions on Egypt which can cause failure of the state.

[Translated by Abdulbasit Abdusemed (from Harar) – an assistant of this blog]

In a related development, Ahram’s website reported yesterday that:

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will give a speech Monday evening on the ongoing row with Ethiopia, which lately started diverting the course of the Blue Nile for its Renaissance Dam project, sources told Ahram Online……

In a meeting hosted by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) last week, Egypt’s Islamist parties had called for a new national conference to discuss responses to the Nile dam crisis.

Earlier last week, President Morsi met with a group of political figures to discuss the report of the international technical committee tasked with studying the impact of the Ethiopia dam.

The meeting triggered a storm of controversy as various figures present made open threats against Ethiopia unaware that the meeting was being televised live.

Deputy head of the FJP Mohamed El-Beltagy said following the meeting that all political forces, including opposition umbrella group the National Salvation Front (which boycotted last week’s conference), would be invited to attend Monday’s conference.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another FJP source told Ahram Online that the Monday conference was an initiative of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party aiming at damage control after last week’s televised debacle.

Watch below excerpts of Egyptian politicians meeting plotting on Ethiopia (with English subtitles) below:

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Daniel Berhane

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