Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed that his country has all means to protect its national security, while Sudan welcomed the setting of the UN Security Council next Thursday as a date to discuss the Renaissance Dam crisis.
Shoukry said that his country will spare no effort to protect its national security, and that all means are available to it to do so, as he put it.
Shoukry also affirmed that Egypt has the determination and ability to defend its water interests.
The Egyptian minister added that Cairo expects from the Security Council an additional effort to push the parties to resume negotiations on the Renaissance Dam, considering that there are conflicting interests within the Council, and that some of its members are reluctant to discuss water issues.
Shoukry said that the comment of the French representative in the Security Council on the Renaissance Dam did not take into account Cairo's full coordination with Paris.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister indicated that Ethiopia did not complete the construction of the dam as planned, and that Egypt believes that the second filling of the dam cannot be carried out completely.
Earlier, Shoukry said in televised statements that Egypt will present a review of the current situation next Thursday in the Security Council session, noting that 10 years of negotiations have not brought a result and the Ethiopian side is still "obstinate."
France's ambassador to the United Nations, Nicolas de Riviere, who is the current president of the Security Council, had 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."
Sudanese welcome, Ethiopian rejection
On the other hand, Khartoum today welcomed 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."
The spokesman for Sudan’s negotiating team, Omar Al-Farouq Sayed Kamel, stressed Sudan’s adherence to the negotiations of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam under the auspices of the African Union, and the renewal of its substantive proposal to strengthen these negotiations with the international quartet represented by the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the African Union, including upgrading the role of the Quartet to the level of mediators. .
On the other hand, the Ethiopian delegate to the United Nations, Tay Aseki Selassie, said that his country places confidence in the process led by the African Union to resolve the crisis, stressing that there is no need to discuss the file in the Security Council.