Egypt calls for UN Security Council intervention in dam dispute

Egypt announced on Friday that it has asked the UN Security Council to intervene to resolve the dispute with Ethiopia over the controversial dam that the country is building on the Blue Nile, after the last round of negotiations between the two and Sudan ended without an understanding.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry reported in a statement that it has asked the Security Council to "emphasize the importance of continuing to negotiate in good faith (...) in order to reach a fair and balanced solution to the dam issue, and not to take any unilateral action".

The note added that Egypt has taken this decision because of the paralysis of the negotiations "as a result of Ethiopia's non-positive positions" and its "lack of political will" to reach a negotiated agreement so that the dam it is building does not affect the other two riparian countries.

The Cairo announcement comes after the failure of Sudan's initiative, which succeeded in relaunching negotiations last week at the level of the three countries' water ministers, although the talks ended this Wednesday without an agreement and with still many differences.

The round was the first to be held after Ethiopia refused to come to the dialogue table in Washington in February, where tripartite negotiations had been taking place since late 2019 with the mediation of the United States and the World Bank.

Likewise, Egypt's passage takes place shortly before Ethiopia begins to fill the Great Dam of the Renaissance, as Addis Ababa plans in July even though there is no agreement with Cairo and Khartoum on this point.

The two downstream countries fear that the project will affect the flow of the Nile to their lands, which in Egypt's case accounts for 90% of the fresh water consumed by the Arab nation.

In its statement, Foreign Affairs recalled that "the water of the Nile is an existential question for the Egyptian people", reiterating its willingness to continue negotiations "in good faith and with sincere political will".

For its part, Sudan, which has recently leaned towards the Egyptian position, called last Wednesday for the most controversial issues to be dealt with at the level of prime ministers in order to reach agreement on the legal aspects, after progress was made at the technical level in the talks held by the ministers of water resources.