The controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Egypt held talks with the Arab Committee charged with following up the file of the Renaissance Dam, after the last meeting of the UN Security Council.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry expressed its belief that the meeting on the Renaissance Dam represented a “diplomatic success and a great achievement for Ethiopia and its people,” according to the official Ethiopian News Agency.
The members of the Security Council, at the meeting held at the request of Egypt and Sudan on Thursday, supported the mediation efforts of the African Union to resolve the dispute over the dam between Ethiopia on the one hand and Egypt and Sudan on the other.
“Despite the efforts made by Egypt and Sudan to refer the dam problem to the UN Security Council, the council returned the issue to the African Union,” Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said in a press conference the day after the meeting.
“This can be considered a great achievement for Ethiopia and for the entire people,” said Dina.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman added that “the achievement made at the UN Security Council meeting will enhance the efforts of the tripartite negotiations led by the African Union” aimed at resolving the conflict peacefully.
The pro-government media organization Fana reported that most of the Security Council’s member states – including Kenya, Norway, Ireland, the United States, Russia, China and India – recommended that the dispute over the dam be resolved through African Union-sponsored negotiations.
photo released, Getty Images
Many negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia ended in failure
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry continued his diplomatic efforts regarding the issue of the Renaissance Dam, where he held talks with the Arab Committee charged with following up on recent developments in this regard.
After the end of the Security Council session, Shoukry discussed with his Sudanese counterpart, Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, and with the Arab Committee, which includes representatives from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco and the Arab League, as stated in a tweet on Twitter by Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez.
Shoukry had warned, in his speech at the Security Council session, that Egypt would “protect its right to life” if Ethiopia insisted on the process of filling the controversial dam.
Shoukry also asked the council to “assume its responsibility,” attributing the current stalemate to what he described as “Ethiopian intransigence.”
In her address to the Security Council, Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi expressed her country’s fears of “the negative effects of the dam in the event that it is filled and operated without reaching a binding agreement between the three countries”, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt.
It also called on the Council to assume its responsibilities in protecting regional peace and security” by conducting negotiations under the umbrella of the African Union and with the participation of international observers and mediators to facilitate the negotiation process between the three countries.
Mariam said that the negotiation process should take place within a specific timetable and called on Ethiopia to refrain from adopting unilateral measures that would threaten the lives of millions.
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have long been locked in a dispute over the Ethiopian dam, which Egypt and Sudan fear will reduce their share of the Nile waters.
Ethiopia says that the dam is a development project and that it has the right to benefit from the waters of the Nile, which flows from its lands
Several negotiations and mediations, held between the three countries regarding the dam, have so far failed to reach an agreement.
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