Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for an international intervention in the negotiations over Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Sisi said the international community should play a “constructive role” in urging all parties to be flexible in the negotiations over the dam, in order to reach an agreement that achieves a common interest for all.
“The Nile water is a matter of life and an issue of existence for Egypt,” he underlined.
Egypt fears that the Ethiopian dam will damage its share of the Nile water, which is estimated at 55.5 billion cubic meters.
The Egyptian president also warned against the repercussions of the stalled discussions on the Ethiopian dam, which he said would have “negative repercussions on stability, as well as on the development in the region in general and Egypt in particular.”
Sisi’s warnings came in the wake of a rare and reciprocal escalation between Cairo and Addis Ababa recently. While Egypt has demanded an end to the eight-year-old negotiations, with no result, Ethiopia has rejected Cairo’s proposals on rules for filling and operating the dam, describing them as a potential violation to its sovereignty.
“Egypt has sought for decades to strengthen and deepen the bonds of cooperation with its brothers of the Nile Basin countries… and expressed its understanding of Ethiopia’s construction [of the dam], despite the lack of thorough studies on the effects of this project… on downstream countries,” he said.
On the Palestinian Cause, the Egyptian president emphasized the importance of finding a fair solution in line with the relevant international resolutions.
Regarding the situation in Yemen, Sisi said: “It is time to end the Yemeni conflict through a political solution and to stop non-Arab interventions that fuel the crisis.”