The rising power of Ethiopia and the shifting geopolitical sand dunes of Eritrea and Egypt

Tigrai Online, Ethiopian News, Nov. 30, 2016

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi walks side by side with the Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerki in Cairo international air port.

The Eritrean President-for-life Isaias Afwerki visited the Egyptian capital Cairo this week and met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday 29 November 2016.

For the average person this move may not seem  really new news since the Egyptians use the Eritrean government especially the PFDJ group as their personal “house boys” to destabilize Ethiopia. However, to those who closely follow the geopolitics of the strategic region of Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, it is a big deal.

The PFDJ group in Eritrea doesn’t know what they are doing when it comes to super complicated politics of our region and how international diplomacy works. First they isolated the tiny poor country from the world as if they are going to hurt the word community, but as soon as they realized they are only going to hurt themselves and the poor people, they turned their eyes and started looking for crumbs in the Middle East. When the Houthi rebellion started a few years ago, Eritrea was supporting the Houthi fighters to get paid a few million dollars from Iran. Then when Saudi Arabia and its allies got involved to support the Yemeni government the Eritrean government answered the call before it was made because the Eritrean PFDJ leaders sniffed more petro dollars. They even send some four hundred soldiers to fight against the Houthi rebels they were training a few months ago on behalf of the Iranians.

The Saudis and the small oil rich Gulf countries are protecting their influence from Iran and supporting the Sunni dominated government in Yemen then what is the Eritrean government doing there? Oh well, the PFDJ slaves only follow one thing and that money.

PFDJ Arab House Boys have no strategic policy to protect the long term interest of the Eritrean people or the short term interest of protecting the people’s safety and security. They don’t have any stand about anything they keep shifting everyday like the sand dunes of the desert. We have heard they have leased the port of Assab for 30 years to the Arabs and millions of dollars will be poured in to the Eritrean economy. At the same time Ethiopia warned the Arabs publicly not interfere in the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Ethiopian Prime Minister said the Saudis and UAI governments assured him about it and they will live Assab as soon as the Yemen situation calms down.

On the other side of the messy politics of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, the Arab coalition force organized by the Saudis is falling apart. Egypt one of the most powerful member of the group withdrew its troops and support from the GCC. Saudi Arabia withdrew its billions of dollars aid support to Egypt. The few crumbs the PFDJ mafia was hoping to get evaporated in to thin air.

The much anticipated Arab-Eritrean alliance to destabilize Ethiopia and stop the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is crumbling before our eyes. The recent uprising in Ethiopia orchestrated by Egypt and Eritrea is fading faster than the morning fog. The GERD is rising to the sky above the evil dreams of our enemies.

A high level delegation including the Ethiopian defense minister led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn visited Saudi Arabia two weeks ago most likely the Saudis got the message.

Now the old buddies, Egypt and Eritrea are back to square one licking their wounds. It seems the clock is about to run out for Egypt and it is ticking for the Eritrean regime that sent 100 thousand kalashnikovs to Gonder region and they were used to destabilize North Western Ethiopia and  for deporting ten thousand Tigrai civilians.