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.
"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.
Trump made the remarks as he announced a breakthrough normalization deal between US ally Israel and Sudan, which like Egypt fears that Ethiopia will use up scarce water resources.
"I had a deal done for them and then, unfortunately, Ethiopia broke the deal, which they should not have done. That was a big mistake," Trump said.
"They will never see that money unless they adhere to that agreement," he said.
What did the Ethiopian PM say?
PM Abiy Ahmed did not address Mr Trump's remarks directly, but there appears to be little doubt what prompted his robust comments.
Ethiopians would finish the dam, he vowed.
"Ethiopia will not cave in to aggression of any kind," he said in a statement. "Ethiopians have never kneeled to obey their enemies, but to respect their friends. We won't do it today and in the future."
Threats of any kind over the issue were "misguided, unproductive and clear violations of international law".
In a separate statement, the foreign ministry said: "The incitement of war between Ethiopia and Egypt from a sitting US president neither reflects the longstanding partnership and strategic alliance between Ethiopia and the United States nor is acceptable in international law governing interstate relations."
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