The Renaissance Dam .. Sudan announces a Security Council session on Thursday, and the European Union stresses the need to reach an agreement

Sudan welcomed the setting of the UN Security Council next Thursday as a date for holding a session to discuss the Renaissance Dam crisis, at a time when the European Union stressed that reaching an agreement on the Ethiopian dam is important for the stability of the region.

Both Cairo and Khartoum had requested the Security Council to hold a session to discuss the dispute over the Renaissance Dam, which alerted Ethiopia to the Blue Nile, at a time when Addis Ababa rejected this request, and considered it unnecessary, and affirmed its adherence to the mediation of the African Union.

European Union spokesman Peter Stano said in statements to Al Jazeera today, Saturday, that reaching an agreement on the Renaissance Dam is important for the stability of the region, pointing at the same time to support the efforts of the African Union to reach a negotiated solution to the dam crisis.

Stano explained that the European Union, as an observer of the Renaissance Dam talks, is closely coordinating with the African Union, the United States and the concerned parties, including Egypt.

In a related context, Khartoum welcomed today what it described as "the response of the President of the Security Council to its request to hold a session to discuss the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, and his statement to hold the session on the eighth of this month," according to the Sudanese News Agency.

The agency quoted the spokesperson for Sudan’s negotiating team, Omar Al-Farouq Sayed Kamel, as confirming Sudan’s adherence to the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations under the auspices of the African Union, and renewing its substantive proposal to strengthen these negotiations with the international Quartet represented in the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the African Union, including upgrading the role of the Quartet to the level of intermediaries.

Sudan also reiterated its keenness to continue negotiations with a sincere intention to reach a final and binding agreement to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam for the benefit of the development and stability of the region and the well-being of its people, according to the same spokesman.

Last June, Sudan asked the Security Council to encourage the parties to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to avoid taking any unilateral measures that might negatively affect regional and international peace and security, while Egypt sent on the 25th of the same month a letter to the Council warning of “international friction” that endangers peace. International security is at risk in the event of the stagnation of the Ethiopian dam file.

Ethiopian rejection

The Ethiopian delegate to the United Nations, Tay Aseki Selassie, said that his country places its confidence in the process led by the African Union to resolve the issue of the Renaissance Dam, stressing that there is no need to discuss the file in the Security Council, which may discuss the issue soon.

Selassie stated that his country does not consider it appropriate to discuss issues related to cross-border resources in the Security Council, adding that Ethiopia is committed and committed to the path taken by the African Union.

Ethiopia, from the beginning, refused the Security Council's intervention to solve the Renaissance Dam crisis and affirmed its adherence to African mediation (Reuters)

Asqi Selassie called on Egypt and Sudan to place their trust in the efforts of the African Union to mediate in the dam dispute.

The solution is difficult

And last Thursday, the UN Security Council announced in a press conference that it would not be able to resolve the dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Renaissance Dam, as it was “outside the scope” of the council.

The current president of the Security Council, Nicolas de Riviere, who is France's ambassador to the United Nations, said that this file "between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, and these countries should talk among themselves and reach logistical arrangements regarding cooperation and participation in water quotas."

De Riviere said on Thursday that the Security Council will likely meet next week (without specifying a specific day), to discuss the dispute between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia over the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.

The Arab countries called the council last month to meet to discuss the issue of the dam and Ethiopia's plans to implement the second phase of filling its reservoir this summer without an agreement with Sudan and Egypt.

Where is the disagreement?

Addis Ababa insists on implementing a second filling of the dam with water in July and next August, even if it does not reach an agreement with the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, and says that it does not aim to harm Khartoum and Cairo, and that the purpose of the dam is to generate electricity for development purposes.

While Cairo insists on first reaching a tripartite agreement on filling and operating the dam to ensure the continued flow of its annual share of the Nile waters, Khartoum showed a few days ago a conditional willingness to accept the proposal of a "partial agreement".

And yesterday, Friday, the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Aty, said that his country supports water dam projects in the countries of the sources of the Nile River, but Addis Ababa met Cairo's flexibility with "obstinacy" in the file of the Renaissance Dam.