CAIRO: Egypt strongly reaffirmed its position during the UN Security Council session on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations, a top diplomat said.
Mohammed Idris, Egypt’s permanent representative to the UN, stated that Cairo held the Security Council accountable for its responsibilities regarding the Renaissance Dam crisis.
The Egyptian state has engaged in intensive diplomatic moves to present the Ethiopian dam crisis to the Security Council, the ambassador announced in televised statements.
The world is full of issues that threaten security and peace, and the Security Council must play its role, the envoy added.
The members of the Security Council do not want to take a position on the dam, said the envoy.
In previous statements, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the matter within the Security Council was complicated, given “political considerations and alignments,” the interaction between permanent and non-permanent members, and “overlapping interests.”
He stated that bringing the issue of the Renaissance Dam to the Security Council was an important matter in order to “hold it responsible as the main organ in the UN system concerned with maintaining peace and security.”
He added that Ethiopia’s argument during the Security Council session was “weak and did not live up to the words of Egypt and Sudan.”
Meanwhile, Shoukry met with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the Renaissance Dam issue.
Now... FM #Shoukry participates in a working breakfast with the foreign ministers of the #European_Union in Brussels to discuss bilateral cooperation & important issues such as the #GERD, the ME peace process & Libya.. strategic relations binding the two sides @EUCouncil pic.twitter.com/0Fp9Hosr0k
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) July 12, 2021
“Shoukry presented the results of the last Security Council meeting, expressing Egypt’s appreciation for the recent statement issued by the European Union Ethiopia declaration criticized the beginning of the second filling of the dam without reaching an agreement with my estuary states,” said Ahmed Hafez, the foreign ministry spokesman.
Egypt’s Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Aty said on July 5 that he had received official notice from Ethiopia that it had begun filling the reservoir behind its giant hydropower dam for a second year, adding that Cairo had informed Addis Ababa of its categorical rejection of the measure, which it regards as a threat to regional stability.
Shoukry also reiterated his demand for the need to develop a road map to reach a fair and binding agreement within a specific time frame, Hafez added.
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