Ethiopia rejected the attempts of Egypt and Sudan to involve Arab countries on the matters of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the efforts of Egypt and Sudan to take the GERD matter as an issue of Arab nations is ‘futile exercise’ and unacceptable by Ethiopia.
In his weekly media briefing, Spokesperson of MoFA, Ambassador Dina Mufti slammed the Egyptian government for mistrusting the African block, saying this is not an accusation rather it is a practical justification of what they are doing.
In an African Union (AU) led meeting held in Kinshasa last week, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan failed to strike a deal over the operations and filling of the GERD. During the discussion, the three countries failed to agree on the proposed enhancement of the role of observers.
Dina told journalists that as the river is African and the entire 11 Nile river countries are Africans, Ethiopia has stuck with its stand of finding African solutions for African problems by Africans.
The spokesperson also said that the long track record has indicated that Egypt, even though it was the chairperson of the African Union, has never whole heartedly applauded the African solution and withdrew seven times from the negotiation, demanding to take the African issue to the outside world, including the United States of America.
“After Egypt handed over the chairmanship to South Africa and subsequently under the Chairmanship of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they are still insisting to involve external actors to derail the negotiation process,” said Dina.
He also blamed the Sudanese government, especially the military wing, for echoing the Egyptian interest, although much of the Sudanese questions are answered and the construction of the dam is important for them.
The sustained interest and agenda of the Egyptians is bringing in a quartet of observers, which they want to play equal negotiating roles as the African Union. When their interest is summed up, it notifies us they don’t have belief and respect for the African Union, said the spokesperson.
“After the Kinshasa negotiation, Egypt has written a letter to the Security Council and this shows their clear intention to derail the negotiation process from the beginning,” said Dina.
However, according to Dina, Ethiopia is asking to reach an agreement over the filing and operations of the dam.
