Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan set deadline on Renaissance Dam

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have set a mid-January deadline for talks on a deal on Addis Ababa's Renaissance Dam on the Nile, which raises tensions between them and Cairo.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, his Ethiopian and Sudanese counterparts, Gedo Andarghash, and the names of President Abdullahi Trump, who said he wanted to help resolve the dispute over the Renaissance Dam, met in Washington on Wednesday.

Subsequently, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan held talks under the auspices of US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin.

A joint statement by the US Treasury Department, the World Bank and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan said the foreign ministers of the three countries agreed to work towards an agreement on the Renaissance Dam by January 15.

If no agreement is reached by the deadline, mediation will be resorted to, or the matter referred to the heads of state or government for consideration.

The three ministers said they would attend two meetings in Washington on December 9 and January 13.

They said four technical meetings would be held in the presence of the United States and the World Bank as observers.

For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the meetings held in Washington on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam resulted in positive results that would control the course of negotiations and set a clear and specific timetable.

Shukri added that it was decided to hold four urgent meetings of the ministers of water resources of the three countries concerned with the participation of the United States and the World Bank, and that it will end within two months, ie, by January 15 next to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the Renaissance Dam.

Washington has hosted talks on the Renaissance Dam, in an attempt to break the deadlock in negotiations, which Ethiopia first announced in 2011, and is due to begin filling its reservoir next year.

Egypt fears that filling the dam will reduce its share of the Nile water estimated at 55.5 billion cubic meters of water, which could pose a serious threat to its population and economy, especially as it suffers from severe water poverty.

Ethiopia says it is committed to completing this huge project to develop its economy, and denies filling the dam will cut Egypt's share of water.

Recently, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abe Ahmed said his country could "fight" in defense of the dam, and his comments came in response to the possibility of Egypt resort to military option to disrupt the dam.

Addis Ababa announced that the huge dam has advanced its work by almost 70%, and cost more than four billion dollars, and will start generating electricity by the end of 2020 with a fully operational by 2022.