CAIRO: Egypt has “many alternatives” to deal with the stalled technical negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with Ethiopia and Sudan, Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Ati has said.
“We have many alternatives in between the two impossible alternatives; to dispense with the Nile water and not to build the dams altogether," he said. There are other ways to negotiate, and Egypt has started many of these ways, but they cannot be declared,” the Egyptian minister said on Saturday during a visit to the northern governorate of Dakahlia.
The minister said that Egypt could not prevent the construction of the dam, but it also could not afford any substantial deficiency in its historical share of water.
“We have to admit that the dam is damaging to Egypt. We are currently working on making this damage, which will lower Egypt's share of water, not serious. We will not allow this to happen.”
Abdel Ati said that the Nile is not just a water resource, echoing Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's statements that the Nile for Egypt is a matter of life or death.
“We are a desert country and we rely on 97 percent of water from outside the border, both in terms of the share of the Nile and the groundwater shared by Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Chad,” he said.
“The rate of consumption of irrigation water in Egypt is 80 billion cubic meters, and only 60 billion is available,” Abdel Ati said. “We compensate for the difference with waste water treatment. Egypt’s share of water is stable while its population is growing at a high rate.”
He predicted that the population of Egypt will reach about 170 million in 2050, up from the current 100 million.
Abdel Ati said that desalination was not a substitute to compensate Egypt for any substantial shortage of its share of Nile water during the years of filling the dam. He stressed that Ethiopia has not yet started filling the dam, noting that Egypt had sent a warning to Ethiopia not to start filling the dam this year.
In a letter of good faith to the Nile basin states, the Egyptian minister said that his country participated during the 1950s in building dams in Uganda and Sudan. “Egypt does not mind building dams provided there is consensus,” he said.
He added that Egypt sent a letter to the World Bank on behalf of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to finance the first detailed feasibility study for the construction of a dam on the Blue Nile, but in 2011 Ethiopia announced the construction of the GERD with different specifications.
This prompted the then Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to visit Ethiopia and meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Asres. They agreed to form an international committee, whose findings showed a lack of sufficient studies. Based on the recommendations of the international committee, there have been changes to the construction of the dam.
Abdul Ati explained that the the dispute in technical negotiations related to two points. The first is “the baseline for the criterion of water-sharing of the Nile that must be committed by the two French consultancy firms (BRL and Artelia) which prepare technical studies on the effects of the dam on both Egypt and Sudan.”
The initial report prepared by BRL and Artelia was adopted by Egypt and Sudan. Both Ethiopia and Sudan objected to the 1959 agreement signed between Egypt and Sudan, which determines their share of the Nile water that reaches to Aswan city in southern Egypt.
The second point of contention concerns the way Ethiopia wants to fill the dam.
According to sources familiar with the technical negotiations, Ethiopia wants to complete filling the dam, which has a capacity of about 74 billion cubic meters of water, in a maximum of 3 years, while Egypt is demanding that the filling should be carried out from 7 to 9 years so as not to significantly affect the share of Nile water.
The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation had managed the technical negotiations on the effects of the GERD and the terms of its filling since September 2014 until Minister Mohamed Abdel Ati announced the deadlock on Nov. 13.
Since then, several official statements issued by Egypt confirmed that ignoring the country’s historical share of the Nile cannot be tolerated, and called for more political negotiations between the leaders of the three countries after technical negotiations failed.
Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation explained that the issue of the Nile River is the issue of all Egyptian state institutions, and any decision will be taken by all these institutions.
He said: “Egypt has taken great strides toward securing its sources of water and guaranteeing its historical and strategic right in the Nile waters.”
On the other hand, Ethiopia and Sudan are demanding the resumption of technical negotiations, considered by many officials and irrigation experts in Egypt to be a ploy to gain time until the completion of the dam and the start of filling it by the next flood season.
The Egyptian Minister of Irrigation said last week, on the sidelines of the Fourth Arab Water Forum, that Egypt had decided to freeze the technical negotiations on Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) after the declaration of principles signed with Ethiopia and Sudan in Khartoum was derailed.
The minister said that Egypt had tried to make the construction of the dam a point of cooperation, not a source of disagreement. In the light of these attempts, Egypt had signed the Declaration of Principles, but the other side had not reached a solution.
“Egypt’s water security is an integral part of its national security,” Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at the forum. “Egypt is following the talks with great concern, because Ethiopia does not have enough inclination for cooperation and coordination. Its plans remain vague and worrisome.”
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Egypt Taye Atseke-Selassie met with members of the African Affairs Committee of the Egyptian Parliament on Nov. 27.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry described the meeting as successful with talks that focused on ways to strengthen relations between the two countries.
The head of the committee, Dr. Al-Sayyed Fleifel, said that the visit was made at the request of the Ethiopian ambassador to discuss the cooperation between the two parliaments and in preparation for the visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to Cairo this month.
He added that the meeting with the Ethiopian Ambassador was within the framework of building confidence and a spirit of cooperation.
He said that the members of the committee stressed that any Ethiopian project should not affect Egypt’s share of the Nile water or the interests of the Egyptian people.
“The Ethiopian ambassador stressed the interest of his country to continue to negotiate and not to harm Egypt during the period of filling the reservoir of the dam,” he said, but reiterated that his country (Ethiopia) will continue to build the dam regardless of any differences.
Fleifel said the committee told the Ethiopian ambassador about “the sensitivity of the Egyptians to any water projects” and demanded that “the visit of the Ethiopian prime minister should reassure the Egyptians about the dam.”
Fleifel said that “Egypt’s current share does not represent more than 5 percent of Nile resources and this quota should be increased.”
He added that the Ethiopian ambassador highlighted the joint management of the dam as it was a trilateral project and did not belong to one country.
The committee also conveyed to the Ethiopian ambassador the concern of the Egyptians about the growing mutual visits between Qatari and Ethiopian officials, especially as Qatar supports some terrorist groups in Egypt, according to Fleifel.
The Ethiopian ambassador said that his country’s recent visit to Qatar, which coincided with the announcement of the stalemate of the technical negotiations, had been scheduled earlier and had nothing to do with developments in negotiations on the dam.
On Dec. 4, 19 Egyptian Parliament members declared their rejection of the Ethiopian prime minister’s visit to the Egyptian Parliament in December, which they called “dangerous.”
They said the visit gave an advantage to the Ethiopian side, "which spares no effort to promote instigation against Egypt in all international forums, relying on the legal, political and economic lies that negatively affect the issue of the Nile waters as it is an issue of Egyptian national security and is a red line.”
Egyptian water minister: Nile is vital to us, but we cannot stop Ethiopian dam
Egyptian water minister: Nile is vital to us, but we cannot stop Ethiopian dam
US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict
Israel’s government on Monday said it was moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there were still outstanding issues.
Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister
- ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
- Several EU states have said they will meet commitments under the statute if needed
FIUGGI: Britain would follow due process if Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UK, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday, when asked if London would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.
“Of course, if there were to be such a visit to the UK, there would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues.”
The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity.
Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.
“The states that signed the Rome convention must implement the court’s decision. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.
Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life
Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.
2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA
- The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night
Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike
- The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
- Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.