Egypt To Protect Its Interests With All Means Available On Dam Dispute - Foreign Minster

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2021) Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said his country will use all means available at its disposal to protect its interests if no agreement is reached on the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

"Egypt is committed to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, but at the same time, it will recognize and defend the interests of its citizens, their livelihoods with all means available and this is his disposal," Shoukry said on Thursday after the UN Security Council meeting on the GERD dispute.

Shoukry said he expected the Security Council to apply preventive diplomacy to bring Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to reaching a legally binding agreement to regulate the operation of the filling the dam with water.

Egypt has been seeking to advance an agreement with Ethiopia over the GERD to preserve its share of Nile River waters.

Cairo said the GERD filling will result in water shocks, including droughts and floods.

"We look upon the Security Council to reiterate that they are supportive of the initiation of negotiations that might bring the countries to an equitable and legally binding agreement... that diffuses the potential escalation of conflict that will have dire consequences on the region and on the African continent as a whole," Shoukry stated.

Ethiopia has been implementing a large-scale project to build the dam - expected to become Africa's largest hydroelectric power plant - on the Blue Nile since 2011, but Egypt and Sudan fear its effects on their own water security.

On Monday, the Egyptian irrigation ministry said it received notification from the government of Ethiopia that it started to fill the dam, which Cairo rejects and claims is a violation of international law.