He invited leading Egyptian politicians to a meeting to discuss the issue of Ethiopia's "diversion" of the Blue Nile - the source of most of Egypt's water. Never mind that the supposed "diversion" was simply a temporary rerouting of the river by some 500 meters from its normal channel.President Morsi called the meeting to review the impact of the dam (if any) on Egypt's water supply. Strangely enough, he failed to inform the politicians that their meeting was being broadcast live on TV, which encouraged them to engage in a favourite pastime - the repetition of old myths of their ownership of the Nile waters and willingness to fight for Egypt's right to control them.He may have also failed to inform his politicians that three days earlier an independent panel of experts (including members from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan) had reported the findings of a yearlong study, that the hydropower dam would not significantly reduce the flow of water reaching Sudan and Egypt.
With Egypt's senior politicians discussing a potential military response, Ethiopia was not amused. President Morsi then appeared to put on a statesmanlike show of conciliation and calm. Later, however, Egypt issued a demand that Ethiopia stop construction of the dam, and warned on June 10th that "all options are open."Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn responded, vowing that "nothing and no one will stop the dam's construction" and downplayed the threat of conflict.
