Ethiopian Foreign Minister Guido Andargachio announced that Addis Ababa will start the process of filling the reservoir of the Renaissance Dam in July, whether an agreement is reached or not, while Egypt called on the UN Security Council to intervene in order to resume the talks.
The Ethiopian minister accused Egypt of exaggerating its propaganda about the Renaissance Dam and that it was engaged in a political gamble according to his expression, adding that his country would not ask anyone to authorize development projects on its water resources.
The Ethiopian minister emphasized that the Renaissance Dam project should be a reason for regional cooperation and integration, not a cause for promoting war.
In response to these statements, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene in order to resume the talks, and said in a statement that it had called on the Council to intervene in order to ensure continued negotiation in good faith, and to reach a just and balanced solution to the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
It also called on Egypt in its request not to take any unilateral measures that might affect the chances of reaching an agreement.
A crisis threatening peace
The statement indicated that Egypt's speech to the Security Council is based on Article 35 of the United Nations Charter, which allows member states to alert the Council to any crisis that would threaten international peace and security.
The statement pointed out that Egypt took this decision in light of the stalled negotiations that took place recently on the dam as a result of Ethiopian positions that are not positive, which come in the framework of the continuous approach in this regard over a decade of painstaking negotiations.
"All efforts have been hampered by the lack of political will in Ethiopia, and its insistence on continuing to fill the Renaissance Dam unilaterally in violation of the Declaration of Principles agreement," the statement said.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry affirmed Cairo's keenness to reach an agreement that would achieve the interests of the three countries, which prompted Egypt to engage in successive rounds of negotiations in good faith and sincere political will.
America on the Line
Earlier, the US National Security Council called on the Ethiopian government to reach a just settlement on the Renaissance Dam.
The council stated in a tweet that 275 million people in eastern Africa are counting on Ethiopia to show strong leadership, which means a fair deal.
He added that the technical problems related to the dam have been solved, and it is time to reach an agreement before starting the process of filling the dam with the waters of the Nile River.
Earlier, Egypt and Ethiopia alluded to military steps to protect their interests by the Renaissance Dam, and experts feared that the breakdown of the talks could lead to conflict.