Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri has called on the UN Security Council on Thursday to adopt a draft resolution proposed by Tunisia that would call for a binding agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on the operation of the Nile dam within six months.
“We do not expect the council to formulate solutions to the outstanding legal and technical issues, nor do we request that the council impose the terms of a settlement,” Shoukri said in his speech at the council session. “This resolution is political in nature and its purpose … is to re-launch negotiations.”
The U.N. Security Council members meanwhile backed African Union mediation efforts between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to solve the dispute over the operation of the dam, urging the parties to resume talks.
Egypt and Sudan both called on the U.N. Security Council to help resolve the dispute after Ethiopia earlier this week began filling the reservoir behind its dam for a second year.
“A balanced and equitable solution to the filling and operation of the GERD can be reached with political commitment from all parties,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council.
“This begins with the resumption of productive substantive negotiations. Those negotiations should be held under the leadership of the African Union, and should recommence with urgency,” she said, adding that the African Union “is the most appropriate venue to address this dispute.”
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi also urged the council to act by calling for a resumption of negotiations and on Ethiopia to abstain from any unilateral measures.
