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Revelations
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Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Revelations » 23 Nov 2021, 18:35

Their hope seems to be squashed and they don't hide their disappointment.

Last edited by Revelations on 23 Nov 2021, 18:55, edited 1 time in total.

Revelations
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Revelations » 23 Nov 2021, 19:08

QUESTION: Oh, sorry. Thank you for doing this. I was wondering if you could give some details on the rough estimates of the number of people that have been detained in Ethiopia, as well as on the front line. Do you have any sense of where the front line is in Afar and Amhara?

And if the TPLF can secure the road to Djibouti, would aid convoys move down it? If so, would that involve a no-fly zone? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR FELTMAN: Thanks, Daphne. Our information on the detainees is not at all – I mean, it’s not at all clear to us how many have been detained. We’re alarmed by the numbers of people who’ve been picked up, by the reports of people being sort of put in camps where COVID may be rampant, where they have – where they’re not having access to due process. But the numbers we simply don’t know.

In terms of the lines of – the battle lines on the ground, it seems to us that in terms of the TDF/TPLF’s moves toward Mile, which is the road to Djibouti, it looks to us as though for whatever reason that they’ve not advanced as much, that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and their partners – the regional militias and stuff – have been able to more or less stem the TDF’s advances toward Mile and keep the major access roads between Djibouti and Addis open, whereas the – it looks as though the TDF/TPLF in the information we have has been able to move past some of the defensive lines on the road to Addis – the defensive line that was Ataye, the defensive line at Shewa Robit, down toward Debre Sina.

So the – for a while the lines were static, and then about a week ago, the TDF/TPLF started to move again. And this alarms us. It alarms us for several reasons. It alarms us because more – the more that you have the military conflict expand, the more people are affected. The closer that the TDF is able to move to Addis, its own demands may increase and what it would expect in the negotiating process. And I want to make it clear we are absolutely opposed to the TDF threatening Addis by cutting off the road to Djibouti or threatening Addis by actually entering Addis.

Revelations
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Revelations » 23 Nov 2021, 19:40

QUESTION: Thank you so much. Good morning, Ambassador Feltman, and thank you for your availability. Ambassador Feltman, I have a three-part question here for you. In 1991 Mengistu Haile Mariam fled from Ethiopia and was granted asylum in Zimbabwe. He’s now an official guest of Zimbabwe, as he was under Mugabe – he is under the current President Emmerson Mnangagwa – and he blamed the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev for his policies and the ending of his regime. From your assessment, who do you believe Prime Minister Abiy blames for this crisis? Photos are circulated him being real friendly with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Do you see in your evaluation any indication that Abiy may be making private plans to seek asylum from some leaders on the continent?

And I also just wanted to say I appreciate your sharing your diplomatic efforts, but might be – you are being overtaken by events on the ground. So I’d like to press you further: Could you be more precise on what is it exactly that is demonstrating to you that you – about what’s happening on the ground – what has happened faster, and why is diplomacy not happening faster? What would it take for the diplomatic effort to move faster? What is the – what are the barriers? What are the hurdles? Help my audiences understand why diplomacy is not moving faster?

And if you say you spoke to Abiy on Tuesday, are we days away from the diplomatic effort succeeding? Are we weeks away from a siege on Addis? How far away are we from either track? Thank you so much, Ambassador Feltman, for all of your sharing.

AMBASSADOR FELTMAN: That’s a rather expansive list of questions there, Pearl. I mean, first of all, let me – you raised 1991. And this is a message that we have said to the Tigrayan leaders, to the TPLF, to the TDF leaders: that they need to remember this is not 1991. In 1991, as you know, the TPLF led a popular entry into Addis with the fall of the Mengistu regime. The TPLF would be met with unrelenting hostility if it entered Addis today. This is not the same as 1991, and we believe that the Tigrayan leaders understand that.

In terms of Prime Minister Abiy, I – again, I have spoken with him repeatedly in our meetings over the months since I’ve had the honor of serving this administration in this capacity. And he is very concerned that the United States and others did not properly credit him for things like the June 28th unilateral humanitarian ceasefire, or properly attribute blame for what happened back in November with the assault on the Northern Command. But there’s a larger narrative that I want to really refute, which is that somehow the United States is nostalgic for the TPLF’s return to government, for a return of that EPRDF, TPLF-dominated regime that was under Meles Zenawi for 27 years.

That is not what we’re after here. We are not taking sides in this conflict. We’re not trying to tip the scales in favor of the TPLF. Prime Minister Abiy emerged – his party emerged successful in elections that took place in June and additional elections in September for other districts. He has a parliament that backs him. Whatever the imperfections are in the elections, I think that they – in general his premiership reflects a popular mandate that we recognize. And so this idea that we’re taking sides on behalf the TPLF is pure fantasy, but it persists.

You mention President Kenyatta of Kenya. President Kenyatta is very concerned about the stability in Ethiopia. He shares the same concern we have about Ethiopia’s overall stability, but he shares it as a neighbor. So I think that he’s playing an extremely important role in being able to talk to Prime Minister Abiy, sort of peer-to-peer, about the need for stability in the Horn of Africa with stability in the Horn of Africa not being possible if there’s destabilization in Ethiopia.

The main hurdle to moving decisively to a diplomatic negotiating track isn’t the United States; it’s not the African Union; it’s not the international community. It’s the political will of the parties themselves. One would think that at this point, given the suffering, given the loss of dignity to too many Ethiopians and northern Ethiopia, that the two sides would recognize that the cost of continuing this conflict militarily is far too high for Ethiopia. And that’s the case that we’re trying to make. But in the end, they’re going to have to muster the political will.

And as I said, I was encouraged that they’re at least willing now to talk to us, to talk to President Obasanjo, to talk to others about the elements that they would see as essential to get to de-escalation and negotiated ceasefire. The – I think the tragedy is, the sadness is, that both sides have in mind the same type of elements. They may have different views on sequencing – who goes first, how far does the TPLF withdraw before something happens on the government side, et cetera, et cetera – but the elements, they agree upon. The primary goals, as I said earlier, of each side are not mutually irreconcilable. So they just need to muster the political will in order to pivot from the military to the – to negotiations. And we’re not the only ones encouraging them to do so, but we can’t force them to the table.


Abe Abraham
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Abe Abraham » 24 Nov 2021, 19:59

Revelations wrote:
23 Nov 2021, 19:08
QUESTION: Oh, sorry. Thank you for doing this. I was wondering if you could give some details on the rough estimates of the number of people that have been detained in Ethiopia, as well as on the front line. Do you have any sense of where the front line is in Afar and Amhara?

And if the TPLF can secure the road to Djibouti, would aid convoys move down it? If so, would that involve a no-fly zone? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR FELTMAN: Thanks, Daphne. Our information on the detainees is not at all – I mean, it’s not at all clear to us how many have been detained. We’re alarmed by the numbers of people who’ve been picked up, by the reports of people being sort of put in camps where COVID may be rampant, where they have – where they’re not having access to due process. But the numbers we simply don’t know.

In terms of the lines of – the battle lines on the ground, it seems to us that in terms of the TDF/TPLF’s moves toward Mile, which is the road to Djibouti, it looks to us as though for whatever reason that they’ve not advanced as much, that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and their partners – the regional militias and stuff – have been able to more or less stem the TDF’s advances toward Mile and keep the major access roads between Djibouti and Addis open, whereas the – it looks as though the TDF/TPLF in the information we have has been able to move past some of the defensive lines on the road to Addis – the defensive line that was Ataye, the defensive line at Shewa Robit, down toward Debre Sina.

So the – for a while the lines were static, and then about a week ago, the TDF/TPLF started to move again. And this alarms us. It alarms us for several reasons. It alarms us because more – the more that you have the military conflict expand, the more people are affected. The closer that the TDF is able to move to Addis, its own demands may increase and what it would expect in the negotiating process. And I want to make it clear we are absolutely opposed to the TDF threatening Addis by cutting off the road to Djibouti or threatening Addis by actually entering Addis.
Feltman,the regime change guy, sounds disappointed. He expected something to happen and then the contrary occurred.

Abe Abraham
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Abe Abraham » 28 Jan 2022, 18:42

Abe Abraham wrote:
24 Nov 2021, 19:59
Revelations wrote:
23 Nov 2021, 19:08
QUESTION: Oh, sorry. Thank you for doing this. I was wondering if you could give some details on the rough estimates of the number of people that have been detained in Ethiopia, as well as on the front line. Do you have any sense of where the front line is in Afar and Amhara?

And if the TPLF can secure the road to Djibouti, would aid convoys move down it? If so, would that involve a no-fly zone? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR FELTMAN: Thanks, Daphne. Our information on the detainees is not at all – I mean, it’s not at all clear to us how many have been detained. We’re alarmed by the numbers of people who’ve been picked up, by the reports of people being sort of put in camps where COVID may be rampant, where they have – where they’re not having access to due process. But the numbers we simply don’t know.

In terms of the lines of – the battle lines on the ground, it seems to us that in terms of the TDF/TPLF’s moves toward Mile, which is the road to Djibouti, it looks to us as though for whatever reason that they’ve not advanced as much, that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and their partners – the regional militias and stuff – have been able to more or less stem the TDF’s advances toward Mile and keep the major access roads between Djibouti and Addis open, whereas the – it looks as though the TDF/TPLF in the information we have has been able to move past some of the defensive lines on the road to Addis – the defensive line that was Ataye, the defensive line at Shewa Robit, down toward Debre Sina.

So the – for a while the lines were static, and then about a week ago, the TDF/TPLF started to move again. And this alarms us. It alarms us for several reasons. It alarms us because more – the more that you have the military conflict expand, the more people are affected. The closer that the TDF is able to move to Addis, its own demands may increase and what it would expect in the negotiating process. And I want to make it clear we are absolutely opposed to the TDF threatening Addis by cutting off the road to Djibouti or threatening Addis by actually entering Addis.
Feltman,the regime change guy, sounds disappointed. He expected something to happen and then the contrary occurred.
That has been proven to be right with time !!

Fiyameta
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Fiyameta » 28 Jan 2022, 18:57

Blame it on Belaynesh Amedie-- the drone with angel wings.


The Lice Head Destroyer!
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by The Lice Head Destroyer! » 28 Jan 2022, 20:41

Fiyameta wrote:
28 Jan 2022, 18:57
Blame it on Belaynesh Amedie-- the drone with angel wings.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Abe Abraham
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Re: Sour grapes served by Mr. Feltman's press briefing & attending journalists questions exsposed hidden agenda

Post by Abe Abraham » 01 Feb 2022, 06:44

Hear! Hear!!

"Their hope seems to be squashed and they don't hide their disappointment."

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