Ethiopia announced today, Wednesday, that it is proceeding with the construction and filling of the second Renaissance Dam, and that this step has nothing to do with negotiations, while Egypt supported a Sudanese proposal to form an international quartet to mediate in the negotiations.
Legal advisor at the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Idris said that Ethiopia has the right to build the dam according to the document of the Renaissance Dam between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, stressing that his country will undertake the second mobilization, and that this step has nothing to do with the negotiations of the Renaissance Dam.
Idris, who is a member of the negotiation delegation on the Renaissance Dam, added that his country will continue building the dam despite the Egyptian and Sudanese attempts, which he described as unacceptable.
Quartet mediation
In the meantime, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed with the coordinator of the working cell concerned with the Democratic Republic of the Congo presidency of the African Union Alphonse Ntumba in Cairo the proposal submitted by Sudan to develop the mechanism of the Renaissance Dam negotiations.
The statement quoted Shukri as saying that Egypt supports Sudan's proposal to form an international quartet that includes the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the African Union to mediate the Renaissance Dam negotiations, believing that the proposal will push the negotiating track forward to reach the desired agreement at the earliest opportunity.
The Egyptian minister affirmed his country's keenness to inform the Democratic Republic of the Congo - which chairs the African Union in its current session - of the latest developments regarding the Renaissance Dam file, because the African Union is the one who sponsors the negotiation track.
On Monday, the Sudanese Minister of Irrigation, Yasser Abbas, announced his country's intention to conduct diplomatic and political contacts to support the Quartet mediation.
And the United States and the World Bank had previously intervened more than a year ago in the Renaissance Dam negotiations between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa, but they did not produce any results.
Ethiopia insists on the start of the second filling of the Renaissance Dam next July, while Khartoum and Cairo adhere to first reaching a tripartite agreement to preserve their annual share of the Nile water, amid stalled negotiations led by the African Union for months.