After America, South Africa is on the path to the Renaissance Dam crisis

The American capital, Washington, will host today, Monday, a meeting of the foreign ministers, water resources, and irrigation of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, to evaluate the recent Renaissance Dam negotiations that ended "without consensus" regarding the filling and operation of the Ethiopian dam.

The accusations escalated between Addis Ababa and Cairo regarding the reason for the failure of the negotiations; while Ethiopia accused Egypt of offering an unachievable vision by sticking to the period of filling the Renaissance Dam during a period ranging between 12 and 21 years; Cairo responded by accusing Addis Ababa of intransigence and trying to impose its control on the Blue Nile.

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Egyptian side's insistence to accept its proposal in full prevented reaching a final agreement on the rules for filling and operating the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam during the last round of negotiations hosted by Addis Ababa on the eighth and the ninth of January.

On the other hand, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the statement issued by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs included "many false fallbacks, in whole and in detail."

On Sunday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abe Ahmed asked South African President Cyril Ramafuza to intervene in the long dispute with Egypt over the dam. Abi Ahmed is visiting South Africa, which will take over the presidency of the African Union, to succeed Egypt this month.

"As Ramafuza is a close friend of both Ethiopia and Egypt, and also as the new president of the African Union, he can hold talks between the two parties to resolve the issue peacefully," Abe told a news conference in Pretoria.

Ramavoza said that his country is open to playing a role in facilitating "any agreement being drafted," adding that "the good thing for me is the willingness of the two countries to discuss this issue and find solutions."

The $ 4.2 billion dam is expected to start generating electricity in late 2020 and to be fully operational by 2022.

Ethiopia - the most populous country in East Africa, with the fastest growing economy on the continent - says the project is necessary for its development.

Cairo fears the potential negative impact of the dam on the flow of its annual share of the Nile's 55 billion cubic meters of water, while Sudan gets 18.5 billion.

Addis Ababa says it does not aim to harm Egypt's interests, and that the aim of building the dam is to generate electricity in the first place.