The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Ethiopia seeks to impose “a fait accompli” on Egypt and Sudan by attempting to continue filling the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) built on their shared Nile River, reported Egypt Today.
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said Egypt is against Ethiopia’s decision to continue with the second phase of filling the GERD later this year because of the threat it poses to the interests of the Egyptian and Sudanese people and the impact of such unilateral measures on security and stability in the region.
He added that international rivers are a joint property of the riparian states, and it is impermissible to extend sovereignty over them or seek to monopolize them.
The Egyptian Ministry’s statement comes after the Ethiopian ministers of water and foreign affairs said on Wednesday that Ethiopia would implement the second filling of the GERD in the coming rainy season starting July as scheduled.
Ethiopia carried out the first phase of filling the dam in July 2020 despite the objection by Egypt and Sudan, which want a prior tripartite legally binding agreement on the rule of filling and operating the controversial dam.
Last week, Sudan urged the European Union, the United Nations, and the United States to mediate in the ongoing AU-led tripartite negotiations.
Ethiopia has rejected Sudan’s call for more mediators.
On Tuesday, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Dina Mufti, said Ethiopia opposes a mediation role by outside parties even if the African Union welcomes it. He said that the tripartite talks between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan on the GERD should be finalized between the three countries themselves, and not through any mediators.
Mufti said the mediator’s role is to coordinate the negotiations but the finalizing of the final agreement should be left for the three nations.
