Cairo summoned the Ethiopian Chargé d'Affairs to it, and requested clarifications regarding the statements of an Ethiopian official, in which he said that Egypt had turned Ethiopia into an existing danger to escape internal problems, which he described as time bombs.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced, in a statement issued late yesterday evening, Wednesday, that it had summoned the Ethiopian Chargé d'Affairs to Cairo to provide clarifications about previous statements of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, Dina Mufti, regarding Egyptian internal affairs.
And Ethiopian media attributed to the Mufti statements in which he said that Egypt had turned his country into an existing danger to escape its internal problems.
It quoted the Mufti as saying, "There are crises that go beyond the Renaissance Dam as ticking bombs that may explode at any moment. Therefore, they have turned Ethiopia into the existing danger, which reflects the depth of the internal crisis in Egypt."
These statements - attributed to the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman - come at a time when the trilateral negotiations with Sudan and Egypt regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have been stalled for many months.
Tensions due to this dam have reached the point of talking about a possible military confrontation, an option that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ruled out earlier this year.
Tensions remained between the two countries in light of the lack of many rounds of negotiations, i.e. progress towards agreement on the rules for mobilizing and operating a dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile River near the border with Sudan at a cost of more than $ 4 billion.
While Ethiopia assures that the dam will provide it with its electricity needs and support its economic growth, Egypt fears that the dam will affect its annual share of the Nile water, which amounts to 55 billion cubic meters.
And last Saturday, the Egyptian President called again for a binding legal agreement on the Renaissance Dam.
The day before yesterday, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that South Africa, which chairs the African Union, called for a new meeting between Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum next Sunday.