Egypt Pushes Towards Resuming GERD Negotiations

Nile fishermen protect stocks by pulling plastic from river. Reuters
Nile fishermen protect stocks by pulling plastic from river. Reuters
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Egypt Pushes Towards Resuming GERD Negotiations

Nile fishermen protect stocks by pulling plastic from river. Reuters
Nile fishermen protect stocks by pulling plastic from river. Reuters

Cairo has reiterated that it was willing to resume negotiations on the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) in order to reach a legally binding agreement.

It also slammed Ethiopian intransigence and unilateral act.

Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel Aty said that Egypt was one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with its resources estimated at about 60 billion cubic meters annually.

While most of this amount came from the Nile, there were also very limited amounts from rainwater and deep groundwater in deserts.

Egypt needs annually around 114 billion cubic meters of water, he pointed out.

He made his remarks at the high-level ministerial meeting organized by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.

Aty said that Egypt supported development in the Nile Basin and African countries as it had established rainwater harvesting dams and underground drinking water stations.

He also stressed Egypt’s quest for a just and binding legal agreement, meeting the aspirations of all countries in development, warning that any action taken by Addis Ababa without such a deal and without coordination with the downstream countries - Egypt and Sudan - was an unwelcomed unilateral act.

Aty stressed his country’s persistence in preserving its water rights.

Ambassador Maged Abdel-Fattah, the Arab League representative to the UN, expected the Security Council to meet before July 10 to discuss the dispute on GERD.

“GERD is a project purely for the generation of electricity for economic development and has no other ill-intention meant to harm the downstream” countries, said Ethiopian Ambassador to South Sudan Nebil Mahdi.

He rejected the Security Council’s involvement, saying the “African-led negotiation process is the only platform for achieving the objective of a lasting solution over GERD.”



Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Israel's military said Monday it had apprehended members of an Iran-backed cell in southern Syria, the second such operation it has announced in the past week.

Since the December overthrow of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes primarily on military sites and carried out cross-border ground raids.

In a statement, the military said troops "completed an overnight operation to apprehend a cell that was operated by the Iranian Quds Force in the Tel Kudna area of southern Syria."

"For the second time in the past week... troops completed a targeted overnight operation and apprehended several operatives who posed a threat in the area," the statement added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israeli forces raided early Monday a village in the Quneitra countryside of southern Syria and "carried out searches targeting several homes, which ended with the arrest of two brothers".

On Wednesday, Israel's military said its forces had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed "terrorist cell" in southern Syria and seized weapons.