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CAIRO: Egypt’s Ministry of Irrigation has announced the impossibility of reaching a unified draft on the Renaissance dam negotiations.
This came after the end of the current round of negotiations between Ethiopia and the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan, during which they discussed a consensual preliminary formula for an agreement regulating the rules for the filling and operation of the dam.
Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources said in a statement that a meeting was held on Saturday, based on the results of the African mini-summit, led by the water ministers of the three countries under the auspices of the African Union (AU). and in the presence of observers from member states of the AU Union Office, the United States and the EU, and experts from the AU Commission, to discuss the possibility of reaching an agreement.
The ministry claimed that the incompatibility between the three countries continued on many legal and technical points with respect to the initial compiled version of the prepared draft, as it had not yet lived up to its submission to the AU office body headed by South Africa.
The ministry revealed that after a lengthy discussion, the water ministers agreed that each individual country would send a letter to the South African president that included their vision for the next stage of the negotiations.
Sudan’s Irrigation Ministry stated that the current round of negotiations ended without setting a new date for its resumption.
The ministry said: “Political will is needed to reach an agreement. The continuation of the negotiations in their current form will not lead to the achievement of practical results. “
Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas announced that the merger of the Sudanese, Egyptian and Ethiopian proposals into a single draft on the Renaissance dam had stalled.
He added: “During the session, the experts from the three countries presented a report on the work of the committees in an attempt to reach a draft unified agreement from the combined draft of the proposals submitted by the three countries.”
“After a careful evaluation of the development of the negotiations and a review of the work of the expert teams during the last days, it was clear that the process of merging the three drafts had stalled,” he said.
Former Irrigation Minister Dr. Muhammad Nasruddin Allam said on Friday that the main differences between the three countries concerned the filling and operation of the Renaissance Dam in periods of drought, the scope of the agreement’s legal obligation, the dispute settlement clause. , the future. Ethiopian projects and the rights of Addis Ababa in a part of the Blue Nile water.
He said: “It is clear that technical disputes are limited compared to legal and political disputes, and that the upcoming negotiations, if there is any intention to continue them, should be political with technical support, led by, for example, the Minister of Relations. Exteriors. “
A member of the former Sudanese delegation to the negotiations, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mufti, said his country should consider Ethiopian intransigence and no-deal water storage, a violation of international law and directives of the Security Council of the UN and AU, and a threat to international peace and security, which gives Sudan the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
He also called on Khartoum to demand that Ethiopia halt any dam-related activity until an agreement is reached that satisfies all three parties, and that Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam be drained of water from the first illegal landfill during the next season of drought. .
Al-Mufti also requested that the UN Security Council appoint a UN delegate to oversee the negotiations, on the condition that Ethiopia does not return to any activity related to the Renaissance dam until after the conclusion of a binding agreement. that serves the interests of all three. parties.
A US State Department official said on Friday that “the work done by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in recent months shows the possibility of reaching a balanced and fair agreement on the Renaissance Dam, which takes into account the interests of the three countries. “
The official, who asked not to be named, said in statements made by Sky News Arabia that “Washington is convinced that a solution can be reached through constructive dialogue and cooperation between the parties. The United States is committed to staying in contact with the three countries until an agreement is reached. “
A Pentagon official had previously refused to confirm the accuracy of Foreign Policy magazine’s report that Washington had frozen $ 130 million in aid to Addis Ababa due to the Renaissance dam crisis.
