The GERD impasse dominates the talk shows on 11 April 2021
The impasse with Ethiopia was still the hot topic of the talk shows last night. Egypt and Sudan’s refusal of Ethiopia’s proposal to share data on the dam — more on this in Diplo, above — were covered and analyzed by most talk shows. Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Atti told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib that the exchange of information is a step towards applying an agreement that doesn’t yet exist (watch, runtime: 1:35 I 3:09 I 1:01 I 4:03 I 4:59).
Is Egypt ready for the second filling? The government has been building the country’s ability to absorb any water shocks by investing over the past five years in various projects including rain water harvesting dams, treatment plants, water rationing, canal lining, modern irrigation system, Abdel Atti explained. This makes Egypt prepared to handle two scenarios after filling the dam, high and medium floods, yet the real issue will be when a severe drought happens. But Egypt won’t allow a water crisis to happen, he stressed.
Is war an option? War is a hard decision that no one should resort to unless it’s the last option and there many steps should precede it such as negotiations and resorting to the global community, the minister said. There might be an international intervention by African and other friendly countries to find a solution.
Ethiopia’s offer rejected as “malicious” and “procrastination”: Irrigation Ministry Spokesperson Mohamed Ghanem described the Ethiopian offer in a phone interviews with Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi and Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa and as a sign of “procrastination” and an attempt to get political and technical cover for the second filling without a binding agreement (watch, runtime: 4:10 I 5:24). He said that Egypt doesn't mind sitting down for another round of talks with Ethiopia so long as it is seriously committed to resolving the dispute, and reiterated that Cairo rejects any unilateral action by Ethiopia. Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies Mohamed Ibrahim told Lamees that negotiations are moving in a "vicious circle," and claimed that Ethiopia’s latest offer is “malicious” and aims to test the Egypt-Sudan alliance (watch, runtime 5:25).
Tunisian President Kais Saied’s three-day visit to Egypt, including his meeting with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his tour of historic Cairo, received coverage on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime 2:54), El Hekaya (watch, runtime 1:32) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 10:56 I 0:44)
The discovery of the 3k-year-old lost "lost golden city” near Luxor was also all over the talk shows: Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 7:40), Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 2:18), Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 4:42), Hadeeth Al Kahira (watch, runtime: 5:02). We have more in this morning’s On Your Way Out, below.