Egyptian President Hopeful Mortada Mansour Threatens War with Ethiopia, Qatar, and to Revoke Camp David Accords

Egyptian lawyer Mortada Mansour was interviewed on several Egyptian TV channels after announcing his candidacy for the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections. In an Al-Hayat TV interview, he threatened to strike Ethiopia over its water dispute with Egypt, and said he would hold a referendum on revoking the Camp David Accords. In a CBC TV interview, he said that the Emir of Qatar could "go to hell and take his mother with him."

Al-Hayat TV, April 7, 2014:

Mortada Mansour: U.S. aid to Egypt is linked to the Camp David Accords. The U.S. gives aid to Jordan, Israel, and Egypt.

Interviewer: Part of it is financial and part military.

Mortada Mansour: Right. But every so often, the U.S. says, for example: We won’t give Egypt Apache helicopters. Even though we face terrorism in the Sinai, they refuse to give them to us. With all due respect, this is unacceptable. The same thing happened with Gamal Abd Al-Nasser. They opposed the construction of the Aswan Dam, so he turned to Czechoslovakia, China, and Russia.

[...]

Interviewer: My question is clear: Will you revoke the Camp David Accords and give up the American aid? I’d like a straight answer.

Mortada Mansour: I have a clear position about the Camp David Accords. Even though these accords were signed by a war hero, the martyr Anwar Sadat, they no longer exist in the practical sense.

The Camp David Accords were a peace treaty. The normalization is between the governments, because the people rejected it.

Egypt is facing economic espionage. Azzam Azzam was spying on the Egyptian economy. The drugs and weapons that enter Egypt from the Sinai come from Israel. This is tantamount to not honoring the agreement.

My position is clear. We should hold another referendum on this agreement. If the people say that it should be revoked or amended, so be it. We need to redeploy our army in order to deal with the terrorism in the Sinai. There should be a referendum on this agreement, and if the Egyptian people decide that it should be revoked – it should be revoked.

How did we benefit from [the agreement] with Israel? All we got was [alleged Mossad spy] Faiqa Misrati, who spread AIDS here.

Interviewer: So you will make the decision to reject U.S. aid to Egypt?

Mortada Mansour: I will do it for the honor of the Egyptian people.

[...]

There are international agreements that regulate water distribution between Ethiopia and Egypt. We should resort to these international organizations. If Ethiopia refuses to cooperate and brings its generals to the dam...

For Egypt, water means life. I won’t let Egypt be left without water, without being able to irrigate lands. I won’t allow the price of water to exceed the price of gas. If Ethiopia insists on denying Egypt its right to life, I will definitely strike it.

[...]

CBC TV, April 8, 2014:

Mortada Mansour: [Emir of Qatar] Tamim can go to hell, and take his mother with him.

Interviewer: How do you expect to become president when you curse like that? Picture yourself sitting at the Arab summit... Adly Mansour is a serious and president-like man. Imagine that you are sitting there, and Sheik Tamim sits with one foot up...

Mortada Mansour: I would hit him on the foot with my shoe.

Interviewer: Inside the summit hall?!

Mortada Mansour: I swear to God, yes.

[...]

Al-Jazeera TV and the Qatari leaders are more hostile to Egypt than Israel. I would give them 48 hours to extradite the terrorists who sit there, cursing Egypt...

Interviewer: What would you do if they don’t comply?

Mortada Mansour: I would not let them sleep. I too have an army, intelligence, and commandos.

Interviewer: What?! You’d get us into a war?

Mortada Mansour: Madame, if we are afraid of Israel, of Qatar, of Turkey...

Interviewer: I am not afraid, but I want to build this country, not to go on wars.

Mortada Mansour: Whenever you try to build this country, Al-Jazeera TV instigates demonstrations.

[...]