CAIRO — On June 4, Egypt’s Al-Azhar stepped into the controversy of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. During a speech, to mark the United Nations’ celebration of the World Environment Day, Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb said that monopolizing natural resources, including water, is tantamount to stealing a God-bestowed right, and that water is common and collective property that no one has the right to undermine.
Tayeb castigated Ethiopian policy, saying that those who deny water “are unjust aggressors who ought to be internationally and regionally stopped to protect the people’s rights and against their perversion and corruption of the earth.”