UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has offered to help break the tripartite impasse between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River. This announcement was made following a phone call between Guterres and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Friday. In the phone call with Shoukry, Guterres confirmed that the UN is available to support and participate in the African Union-led negotiation process on the dam, quoted Stephane Dujarric, the secretary-general's spokesman. The UN chief expressed the hope that the process will count on the full engagement of the parties in a serious negotiation, the spokesman added. The UN chief confirmed that the UN is available to support and participate in the African Union-led negotiation process on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, at the invitation of the chairperson of the African Union, President Felix Tshisekedi, according to the statement issued by Guterres. Ethiopia started building the dam in 2011. While Egypt is concerned that the dam might affect its share of the Nile waters, Sudan has also raised similar concerns over the dam. Over the past few years, tripartite talks on the rules of filling and operating the Ethiopian dam have been fruitless, including those hosted by the US and recently by the African Union. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Shoukry stressed during the call with the UN chief on the necessity of launching a serious and effective negotiation process under the auspices of the African Union (AU) with the participation of international partners for a legally binding deal on the disputed Grand Ethiopian Dam before the upcoming flood season. The Egyptian foreign minister reiterated the need for a fair and balanced legally binding accord on the dam that takes into account the interests of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan before Ethiopia's planned second filling of the dam over the summer. "Such a unilateral move would have negative impacts and consequences that should be avoided through reaching a deal on the dam at the earliest opportunity," Shoukry said. Sudan has proposed last month forming an international quartet committee to mediate the stalled negotiations on the dam. Egypt has backed the proposal. The proposed committee would include the US, the European Union (EU), the UN, and the AU, and would be under the auspices of Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the current head of the AU. — Agencies
