Sudan confirmed that it will not rest until a binding legal agreement is reached on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, while Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is seeking European support for his country's position on the dam crisis.
According to Egyptian diplomatic sources, the Egyptian Foreign Minister is expected to discuss today, Monday, in Brussels with the European Council, a number of common issues, including the latest developments related to the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The sources added that Shoukry will deliver a letter from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to the President of the European Council.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister headed to Brussels to discuss the support of European bodies in the file of the Renaissance Dam, hours after he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Security Council's failure to condemn the second mobilization of the dam.
Shoukry said that his country is ready to deal with any positive sign in the dam crisis, and will continue to follow up on the matter in the Security Council and with its African and international partners.
In the same context, Sudanese Foreign Minister Maryam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi is holding talks in Moscow with Russian officials, with the dam issue at the fore.
Sudanese insistence
In turn, Hassan Abu Al-Bishr, deputy technical staff of the water resources at the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation, said, "Sudan must reach a legal and binding agreement with Ethiopia regarding filling, operating and managing the Renaissance Dam, because without an agreement, the benefits of the dam could turn into very big disadvantages affecting the population on the shore of Nile".
He added in a video published by the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, yesterday, Sunday, on its Facebook page, "We will not rest at all unless we reach a legal and binding agreement with Ethiopia as well as with Egypt regarding the dam crisis."
He explained that the binding agreement makes water resources managed in a smooth and safe manner, and thus becomes a real nucleus for cooperation between the three countries.
On Saturday, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasser Abbas called for the resumption of talks on the Renaissance Dam.
Security Council
And last Thursday, the Security Council held a session on the Renaissance Dam dispute, the second of its kind after the first one held last year, to move the stalemate of negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.
However, the Council did not issue any decision regarding the draft Arab resolution, which calls for continuing negotiations between the three countries for a period of 6 months in order to reach an agreement on the rules for filling and operating the dam.
The Council returned the issue of the Renaissance Dam to the African Union, calling on the three countries to proceed with the negotiation path, without specifying a time limit, as demanded by Egypt and Sudan.
On the fifth of last July, Ethiopia notified the downstream countries of the Nile, Egypt and Sudan, to start a second filling of the dam with water, without reaching a tripartite agreement, which Cairo and Khartoum rejected, as a unilateral measure.