Egypt and Sudan have the ability and determination to defend their water interests, Foreign Minister Sameh Shourky told Al-Arabiya news channel during a phone call.
Egypt is always in favor of pursuing political and diplomatic means to resolve any issues, and has always supported a multi-lateral approach, whether at the African Union (AU) or the UN levels, to reach a peaceful settlement to Ethiopia’s controversial dam issue, relying on its fair stance on such an existential cause, he added.
However, as President Abdel Fattah El Sisi pointed out earlier, “negotiations are not supposed to last forever,” Shoukry stressed.
He noted that Egypt had resorted to the UN Security Council to put permanent as well as non-permanent members in the picture as regards Egypt’s endeavors to thrash out a binding agreement regulating the dam filling and operation processes without detriment to the water rights of the two downstream countries.
As for Ethiopia’s rejection of the Arab League’s involvement in the dam issue, Shoukry said that “the league, as a regional organization, enjoys every right to have its say on any issue affecting any of its member states.”
