The US Secretary of state Mr. Antony Blinken recently, officially called for the “immediate withdrawal” of Eritrean forces and Amhara regional forces from Tigray. This is a crystal-clear interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country. It is more so in the case of Amhara regional forces.
A statesman of Anthony’s stature would not issue such unstatesmanlike statement about a “friendly country”, if not in consonance with the leadership of that country, with whom he has had several discussions before issuing the statement. Hence, the question is why would Abiy Ahmed want to use Antony Blinken as a proxy. In particular,
why would Abiy Ahmed demand the withdrawal of Amhara regional forces through Antony Blinken?
There is no doubt that Abiy Ahmed is the chief executive of Oromuma, the goal of OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) to establish an Oromo empire covering most, if not all, of present-day Ethiopia. As such, Abiy Ahmed can realize his dream of completely oromizing Ethiopia, if and only if he can reduce the so-called Abyssinian regions (Tigrai and Amhara) to vassal regions of Oromia, led by confused or convinced subservient puppets. Now that Tigrai has become one, the one and only obstacle to the realization of Oromuma is the Amhara region. Therefore, anything and everything which would make the Amhara region bigger and stronger should be fought
tooth and nail, using any and every available means.
The reincorporation of Welkait and Raya to their rightful Amhara region would no doubt make the region the most powerful in the country, rendering Abiy’s dream of oromizing Ethiopia forever irredeemable. Therefore, this reincorporation must be blocked by any means necessary, including diplomatic.
First, Abiy Ahmed demanded the withdrawal Amhara regional forces from their own lands, through a well-known official of his puppet administration in Tigrai, Abraha Desta of Arena. Then, to give the demand more weight and, more importantly, tofrighten the Amhara region officials into submission by implicating them of genocide, Abi Ahmed gave an ultimatum through the foreign minister of the United States, Mr. Antony Blinken.
Blinken may want the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Ethiopia, if only because Eritrea is not subservient enough to USA. However, he would use hearsay to accuse Amhara regional forces of genocide and to demand their eviction from their own land, only at the request of the anti-Amhara Abi Ahmed.
Granted that American political expertise is mostly shallow, even though the foreign secretary of the US is new to the job, one would expect him to be thoroughly briefed about the situation in Ethiopia before issuing any serious, albeit downright disrespectful, statement about the country. In particular, he should have been well informed about the life or death decisive infighting between the different factions of Abiy Ahmed’s prosperity party. However, Mr. Blinken may not have realized that the shrewd Abiy Ahmed has outsmarted him by making him unwittingly take his side.
Finally, my token advice to Amhara region officials. Do not heed to Blinken’s baseless, degrading request to withdraw from Wolkait and Raya. It is a half-hearted request, if not a bluff, made only to please Abi Ahmed, at the behest of Abiy Ahmed. However long Blinken keeps making his nonsense request, you should doggedly stand your ground, realizing that you are the last line of defense to save Ethiopia (including, of course, Tigrai) from the plague of Oromuma. Above all, never, ever forget that Abiy Ahmed is a backstabber serpent, ever fearful of direct, frontal engagement or confrontation. Just as he is killing Ethiopia while professing of his deep love for her, he is lauding the bravery of Amhara regional force while conspiring with foreign powers to tarnish its name so much so that it would be labelled terrorist.
The recent TPLF debacle has glaringly shown that the Amhara regional force, though poorly armed, is a very formidable force that can easily handle any force Oromuma can muster, however armed that oromuma force may be. The only way to vanquish it is by inviting western powers under the pretext of genocide.