Despite his prohibition against demonstrating in Egypt, the Sisi regime is calling for demonstrations in Washington against the Renaissance Dam

Mohamed Abdullah - Cairo

"Ironically ...!", This is how observers and politicians described the Egyptian government's decision to mobilize its supporters to demonstrate in front of the White House today, Sunday, to urge the US administration to support Egypt's position on the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The Egyptian Ministry of Immigration announced organizing a demonstration of the Egyptian community in front of the White House headquarters in the United States tomorrow, Sunday, to urge the American administration to make more efforts to support the Renaissance Dam negotiations, and to demand the protection of Egypt's water rights in light of the failure of these negotiations.

The Egyptian Ministry of Immigration indicated - in a statement - that a delegation of Egyptian professionals and academics in America presented a "comprehensive assessment of the effects of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Egypt, where they emphasized that the most prominent truth behind Egypt's water policy is that Egypt's climate is very dry (95% of its area is desert) ), 97% of its water is derived from the Nile, and it has no other source of water. "

Egyptians in the United States also launched an electronic campaign to collect signatures and urged US President Donald Trump to activate the Renaissance Dam negotiations, calling on European leaders to suspend investments in Ethiopia, they said.

The Egyptian regime's resort to the right to demonstrate, which prohibits it against its opponents, raised eyebrows by observers and politicians who spoke to Al Jazeera Net, considering the invitation a diplomatic fall in the file of the Renaissance Dam, and contradicts the prohibition of demonstrating in Egypt.

The Egyptian authorities prohibit demonstrations in accordance with a law issued in November 2013, during the era of interim President Counselor Adly Mansour, and used it to prevent the call for demonstrations, whether factional or political, on the pretext of threatening national security.

The demonstration also comes in response to a demonstration organized by Ethiopians in the United States of America at the end of February, to ask US President Donald Trump and his administration to stop putting pressure on their country in the file of the Renaissance Dam.

The Voice of America website quoted the demonstrators in front of the US State Department, their anger at the "favoritism" of the American side to Egypt in the Renaissance Dam negotiations, in which both Washington and the World Bank participate as mediators and observers.

During the past two weeks, the Renaissance Dam crisis escalated after Ethiopia announced its withdrawal from negotiations with Egypt and Sudan under American sponsorship, affirming its right to the waters of the Nile, and that there is no force preventing it from exploiting its resources in development, which Cairo rejected and considered it an unjustified escalation.

Absurd sight
The coordinator of the April 6 movement in America, Sawsan Gharib, described the scene that the Egyptian government called for absurdly, saying, "The Minister of Immigration, which represents the Sisi coup regime with the protest law that has imprisoned thousands of young people in Egypt, today invites every Egyptian to demonstrate in America. What happens is Tampering, double standards, and a lack of resourcefulness and shame. "

She accused the Ministry of Immigration of trying to whitewash the face of the regime in Egypt and deceiving the Egyptian people after the failure of the Renaissance Dam negotiations in Washington last month.

It was the first of the Egyptian government to search for more effective diplomatic options that respect the right of Egyptians to water, she added.

As for the head of the Washington Dialogue Center, Abdel-Mawjoud Al-Dardiri, he expressed his surprise and disapproval of "this unprofessional and useless way, because the demonstrations are a role assigned to civil society organizations, not to governments that have many diplomatic tools that they can use for their crucial issues."

He added to Al-Jazeera Net that such behavior denotes the failure of the Egyptian diplomacy and the loss of all the pressure cards, saying, "The Sisi regime should have been honest even for once with its people and openly profoundly the crisis and seek the help of its people to solve it."

In turn, said a spokesman for the Egyptian American Society for Democracy and Human Rights, Said Abbasi, "The summit of contradiction calls for Sisi - who exposes the freedom to demonstrate - to a demonstration in front of the White House about the Renaissance Dam !, How do Egyptians respond to those who confiscated their freedom? How does he demand protection of Egypt's water rights? He neglected it and signed the Agreement of Principles in 2015 and waived Egypt's historical right to the Nile?

He continued in his talk to Al-Jazeera Net if Sisi really wants to preserve the waters of the Nile, then he must first withdraw from the agreement of principles he signed in Khartoum in 2015, and go to the Security Council and threaten to resort to force, but he does not resort to force except in suppressing the people Egyptian and not for national security.

Egyptian pressure
On the other hand, Sherine El-Naggar, a member of the Egyptian community in the United States, said that "the Egyptians decided to organize a protest in front of the White House, in protest against Ethiopia's position on the Renaissance Dam crisis."

She added, during a telephone conversation with the Egyptian TV, that Ethiopia has, during five years, been the age of private negotiations to delay and waste time until the construction of the dam is completed.

She emphasized that the Egyptians decided to demonstrate to pressure the American administration to take practical steps towards Addis Ababa, which it withdrew from the negotiations, in clear violation of the principles agreement, she said.