By Andrew Korybko
American political analyst
Ethiopia might suspect that the US has ulterior motives in threatening an uninvited military intervention into the country on the pretext of evacuating its citizens who thus far donโt even want to leave because they still feel safe in the capital.
CNNย reported on Tuesday that โThe US military has positioned US special operations forces in Djibouti to be ready to provide assistance to the US Embassy in Ethiopia if the situation worsens, according to one military official and two sources familiar with the movements.โ This comes after US State Department spokesman Ned Priceย deniedย last week that an Afghan-like evacuation was being considered despite not being prompted to compare the two. Associated Press reported Matt Lee thenย challengedย Price as to why heโd even bring that up, which resulted in a tense exchange between them.
Thereโs some more background context that the reader should be familiar with in order to understand how dangerous it is that the US is now flirting with the Afghan scenario in Ethiopia. Despite denying that itโs taking any side in Ethiopiaโs ongoing conflict, the US has indeed tacitly supported the Tigray Peopleโs Liberation Front (TPLF) thatโs designed by that countryโs democratically elected and legitimate government as terrorists. The TPLF used to be the most influential faction of the former ruling party before falling out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last year.Read Aloud:ย ย ย Open Letter to the ESFNA BoardPowered byย Inline Related Posts
The TPLFโs surprise attack against the Ethiopian National Defense Forceโs (ENDF) Northern Command in the Tigray Region in November 2020 provoked the latest war which Addis Ababa originally conceived of as a law enforcement operation thatโs since morphed into an anti-terrorist campaign. The US has been pressuring Addis to regard the TPLF as political equals and enter into talks with them, with the latest instanceย occurringย during US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenโs recent trip to Africa. Congress also introduced a bipartisan bill that threatens more sanctions against the Ethiopian government.
Misleadingly called the โEthiopian Peace and Democracy Promotion Act of 2021โ (EPDPA), it demands exactly what Blinken did under the threat of sanctioning officials who continue the war as well as the countryโs foreign arms partners. Following the TPLFโs military advances earlier this month in the neighboring Afar and Amhara Regions that they invaded over the summer following the ENDFโs withdrawal from Tigray as part of the stateโs unilateral ceasefire, senior US General William Zana told theย BBCย that his countryโs troops in Djibouti were โhere to respond to crisisโ in Ethiopia.
That provocative pronouncement prompted Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssef toย tweetย that his government wonโt allow its American military guests to use their base there โfor hostile intervention in the neighboring countries.โ Nevertheless, US officials continued to fearmonger that its citizens should urgently evacuate the Ethiopian capital. In response, Ethiopian Ambassador to the US Fitsum Arega told Russiaโsย Sputnikย that โIt is regrettable that some should try to weaponize fear and alarm as a pressure strategy in aid of the TPLF.โ He also claimed that Addis is safe and peaceful.Read Aloud:ย ย ย A year after long time leaderโs death, Ethiopia has seen little changePowered byย Inline Related Posts
Making everything all theย more dramaticย was the USโ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)ย advisoryย last week that the TPLF โlikely possess a variety of anti-aircraft capable weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank weapons, low-calibre anti-aircraft artillery, and man-portable air-defence systemsโ that could pose a threat to civilian aircraft if the group advances closer to Addis. They therefore urged Americans to comply with their governmentโs advice to evacuate the capital. The emerging dynamics are that while the US denies an Afghan scenario in Ethiopia, itโs neverthelessย fearmongeringย such.
This is extremely dangerous since Ethiopia is a sovereign state that doesnโt want the US military entering its territory without permission in order to evacuate the American citizens that have thus far voluntarily declined to heed their governmentโs advice to leave. Washingtonโs tacit support of the TPLF strongly suggests that it isnโt a neutral party in this conflict. Addis might therefore suspect that the Pentagon has ulterior motives in threatening an uninvited military intervention into the country on the pretext of evacuating its citizens who thus far donโt even want to leave because they still feel safe in the capital.Read Aloud:ย ย ย Ethiopia: Reconciliation Pyramid ( Zelalem Eshete, Ph.D.)Powered byย Inline Related Posts
These tensions are a way of coercing Addis into treating the terrorist-designated TPLF as its political equal. The US is taking that groupโs side since it regards them as an instrument for internally partitioning Ethiopiaย per the Bosnian scenarioย that was proposed last month by Alex Rondos and Mark Medish in an opinion piece forย Politico. The first served until July 2021 as E.U. Special Representative to the Horn of Africa while the second served on the Dayton Peace implementation team and at the U.S. Treasury and National Security Council in the Clinton Administration. Theyโre very influential Western figures.
The reason why this scenario is being pursued by the US via proxy through the TPLF is toย weakenย Ethiopiaย forย geostrategicย reasonsย connected to its New Cold War with China. Prior to the conflict, that country pragmatically balanced between both Great Powers, but Washingtonโs zero-sum geostrategic mindset regards any countryโs mutually beneficial ties with Beijing as being to the USโ detriment. Since Ethiopia has historically led the continentโs anti-imperialist and pan-African movements, it could set a positive example for all others to follow if the US doesnโt punish it for defying its hegemonic will.
the habesha news
