Three factors are contributing to Ethiopia\u2019s growing isolation. The first is Abiy\u2019s capricious approach to foreign policy, which is characterized by personal relationships rather than engagement with institutions. He has sidelined the foreign ministry and closed or downsized dozens of embassies. He has alienated foreign leaders with a string of unkept promises, such as those to allow aid to reach Tigray or to eject Eritrean troops. And he has infuriated America by buying drones from Iran and snubbing American envoys.<\/p>\n
The second factor is the West\u2019s perceived double standard. From 1991 to 2018, when the TPLF dominated the Ethiopian government, America routinely turned a blind eye to its ally\u2019s human rights violations. Because the Ethiopian army was helping fight jihadists in Somalia, a brutal campaign against separatists in Ethiopia\u2019s own Somali region drew scant condemnation. \u201cThe West emboldened the TPLF and whitewashed its past sins,\u201d argues Zelalem Moges, an Ethiopian lawyer. More recently, the administration of Donald Trump sided with Egypt and Sudan in their dispute with Ethiopia over a huge dam it is building on the Blue Nile. \u201cAbiy genuinely believes the United States is trying to overthrow him,\u201d notes an American diplomat. \u201cHe believes that he is this pro-American, liberalizing market reformer that we have shunned.\u201d […] CONTINUE READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three factors are contributing to Ethiopia\u2019s growing isolation. The first is Abiy\u2019s capricious approach to foreign policy, which is characterized by personal relationships rather than engagement with institutions. He has sidelined the foreign ministry and closed or downsized dozens of embassies. He has alienated foreign leaders with a string of unkept promises, such as those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Abiy-Ahmed-244404839_42670405.jpg?fit=698%2C460&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1z2a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373004,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373002\/revisions\/373004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}