E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Ethiopia PM warns of Nile war
[Al Jazeera] Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, has told Rooters that Egypt could not win a war with Ethiopia over the Nile river.
...possibly because, unlike those of the Egyptian army, Ethiopian guns and sandals do not require duct tape to keep from falling to pieces?
The Egyptian army has US weapons and a fair bit of US and western training these days. I suspect their maintenance is still Insha'allah.
In an interview on Tuesday, Meles also accused Egypt of trying to destabilise his country by supporting several small rebel groups, but said it was a tactic that would no longer work.

"If we address the issues around which the rebel groups are mobilised then we can neutralise them and therefore make it impossible for the Egyptians to fish in troubled waters because there won't be any," he said.

"Hopefully that should convince the Egyptians that, as direct conflict will not work, and as the indirect approach is not as effective as it used to be, the only sane option will be civil dialogue."

In response, Egypt said it was "amazed" by Ethiopia's suggestion that Cairo might turn to military action in a row over the Nile waters, saying it did not want confrontation and that it was not backing rebels there.

"I'm amazed by the language that was used. We are not seeking war and there will not be war," Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Egyptian foreign minister, told Rooters during a visit to Abu Dhabi.

In a statement, the minister said the "charges that Egypt is exploiting rebel groups against the ruling regime in Ethiopia are completely devoid of truth."
Posted by: Fred 2010-11-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=310493