More tension and disagreement has emerged from the recent meetings in Khartoum between the ministers of water resources and foreign affairs of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia concerning the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian Dam project.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour described the tripartite meeting’s results as having laid down a positive infrastructure that could soon be articulated in the form of an agreement that satisfies all sides during the meeting scheduled to be held in Khartoum later this month. Ghandour blamed the media for failing to report on positive advancements in the negotiations.
In an interview with Egypt’s Middle East News Agency (MENA), Ghandour reasserted his commitment to the Declaration of Principles signed by the three presidents last March in Khartoum that stated that no party should be negatively affected by the dam.
However, former minister of irrigation and water resources, Mohamed Nasr El-Din Allam told Daily News Egypt: “The negotiations of the previous tripartite meeting weren’t positive or successful.”
Allam stated that the negotiations continue to be marked by relative intransigence with little agreement, dismissing Ghandour’s characterisation of media bias as the principal issue, while also accusing the Sudanese government of intentionally prolonging the negotiations so as to commence construction on the dam before the conclusion of a technical study to be published on 1 June 2016.
Allam added if the talks failed in the next meeting, Egypt should organise a presidential meeting to address its grievances internally before making recourse to the African Union’s organisations and subsequently to the United Nations Security Council.
