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Ethiopia rejects Arab League’s support for

United Nations intervention over GERD

ETHIOPIA ETHIOPIA has rejected the Arab League’s call Ethiopia and accused Addis Ababa of having a
for the GERD hydropower dispute with Egypt to record of unilateralism that was politically and
be referred to the United Nations Security Coun- strategically untenable.
cil (UNSC). The Ethiopian government’s statement said
The Executive Council of the League of Arab that “the disagreement between Ethiopia, Egypt
States this week said it supported Egypt’s desire and the Sudan can only be resolved through good
to bring in the UNSC to break the deadlock faith negotiation and compromise in the spirit of
between Ethiopia on one side and Egypt and finding African solutions to African problems. It
Sudan on the other over Addis Ababa’s planned is precisely because of this reason that the United
filling of the GERD dam in summer 2021. Nations Security Council referred the matter to
Ethiopia has “rejected in its entirety” a reso- the African Union.”
lution by the Executive Council of the League of Put simply, Addis Ababa wants to continue
Arab States backing Egypt’s position in calling with the existing African Union negotiating
for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) framework, even though Cairo claims it has bro-
to intervene to push Ethiopia to sign a binding ken down and wants to bring in the UN.
agreement on the GERD negotiations before the Talks brokered by the African Union and the
latter begins the second filling of the mega dam EU have so far failed to make any progress over
this summer. the past year.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Earlier in June, Egyptian and Sudanese offi-
said in a statement the resolution was a repeat cial stated their deep concern about Ethiopia’s
of the Arab States “misguided positions on the proposed filling and operation of the GERD this
GERD,” and said that “as a result of its egregious summer without first reaching a binding legal
support to the baseless claims of Egypt and the agreement.
Sudan regarding the GERD, the League of Arab Meanwhile, the US has also become involved.
States has already squandered its opportunity to The US envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Felt-
play a constructive role.” man, in May called on the three countries to find
Egypt has made concerted efforts over the a solution to their dispute over the Grand Ethi-
past week to push the matter forward. As well as opian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project, which
getting the Arab League to call for UNSC inter- has threatened to destabilise relations between
vention, Cairo had submitted a 95-page docu- them.
ment to the Council calling on it to intervene. Feltman said that US President Joe Biden was
Egypt accused Ethiopia of adopting “a policy “serious in settling such a sensitive issue.”
of prevarication and obstructionism.” Ethiopia intends to test two of the 6,475-MW
Ethiopia’s Addis Standard said that the hydro dam’s 16 planned turbines.
document claimed that the failure to reach an Ethiopia conducted its first filling in July 2020
agreement on the GERD could have serious with 5bn cubic metres. The total capacity of the
repercussions on regional stability and security. reservoir is 74 bcm, to be filled over several years.
Egypt’s UN papers said that the filling would The dam is anticipated to become the largest
threaten Egypt and Sudan’s water security, hydroelectric power station in Africa, with a pro-
and could have wider political and security jected capacity of 6,500 MW, to meet the needs of
ramifications. Ethiopia’s 110mn people.™
Egypt said it was being held hostage by

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