Diplomatic sources in the African Union revealed to the island that, during the past 24 hours, South Africa conducted secret high-level contacts with Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, separately, to make a breakthrough on the Renaissance Dam negotiations file, before the presidency of the Union moved from South Africa to the Congo.

These moves come in conjunction with a one-day visit by a delegation from the UAE Foreign Ministry to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as part of an initiative to support the stalled Renaissance Dam negotiations.

The Sudanese News Agency "SUNA" said that the visit came within the framework of an Emirati effort "to bridge the gap between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and to break the deadlock in the negotiations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam."

It quoted a Sudanese source as saying, "The Emirati delegation met officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Irrigation, and listened to a detailed explanation about Sudan's position in the dam file."

He added that the Emirati initiative did not come at the request of his country.

In a related context, Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a Sudanese source as saying that the Egyptian Minister of Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Ati, will visit Khartoum today, Thursday, at the head of a large technical delegation.

The visit focuses on bilateral cooperation and the negotiations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The Sudanese source added that a delegation headed by a member of the Sovereignty Council, Shams El Din Kabbashi, would visit Cairo to discuss the border crisis with Ethiopia, and the developments of the Renaissance Dam crisis.

Ethiopian accusations

On the other hand, Dina Mufti, a spokesman for the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, "(He did not name it) that seeks to thwart the efforts of the African Union in the Renaissance Dam crisis, so that the crisis is not resolved through an African mechanism."

In turn, Yilma Seleshi, a member of the Ethiopian delegation to the Renaissance Dam negotiations, stressed that there is nothing legally binding him to the commitment to negotiate.

He added: There is no reason for us to continue negotiations if the downstream countries do not want that, accusing Khartoum of working to disrupt the negotiations because of its political cooperation with Egypt.

Last Monday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Qamar al-Din announced that his country had submitted conditions to the African Union to return to "meaningful" negotiations in the Renaissance Dam file, indicating that Khartoum had other "options".

According to a statement by the Sovereignty Council, Qamar al-Din said that his country had "presented (he did not clarify) conditions for South Africa as the chair of the African Union to return to meaningful negotiations on the dam."

The minister pointed out that the negotiations during the last period were of no use because they were focused directly between the three countries, whose positions diverged from the beginning, stressing his adherence to the African Union experts playing a greater role to overcome the negotiation process.

He referred to Sudan’s protest to the African Union against Addis Ababa’s intention to continue the process of filling the dam for the second year next July without an agreement, describing what is done as a violation of international law.

On January 4, Khartoum refused to participate in a tripartite video conference with Egypt and Ethiopia on the Renaissance Dam, and said that it did not accept its demand regarding maximizing the role of African Union experts and observers through bilateral meetings.

The three countries have been engaged in stalled negotiations over the dam over the past 9 years, amid mutual accusations between Cairo and Addis Ababa of intransigence and an attempt to impose unrealistic solutions.

Addis Ababa insists on filling the dam with water even if it does not reach an agreement on it with Cairo and Khartoum, while the latter two insist on the need to first reach a tripartite agreement, to ensure that their annual share of the Nile water is not negatively affected.