Ethiopian dam talks jammed with no compromise in sight
Another meeting between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia on the massive Nile dam ended in an impasse, leaving many questions about its construction unanswered.
CAIRO — After 18 hours of talks, another tripartite meeting about the controversial dam being built on the Nile River ended in deadlock. Attendees might have been disappointed, but they couldn't have been surprised.
The foreign ministers, irrigation ministers and heads of the security and intelligence agencies of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met April 6 in Khartoum, Sudan, for the latest round of talks, but failed to make a breakthrough on several outstanding issues, mainly the findings of technical studies on the impact of the dam and filling the water reservoir behind it. Officials of the three countries have been arguing about the dam for years.
In a brief statement on the sidelines of the meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry confirmed no agreement was reached.
“The meeting touched on several issues without yielding any specific course of action or definitive results,” Shoukry said. "New efforts to find solutions will be resumed in 30 days in a bid to break the stalemate.”
