Egypt blasts Ethiopia for stalemate in dam talks

By Ahmed Asmar

CAIRO, Egypt (AA) - Egypt on Friday accused Ethiopia of intransigence for its positions during tripartite talks with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam or Al-Nahda dam.

"No tangible progress was achieved," said an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement following the end of the fourth and last round of talks over the dam.

The statement accused Ethiopia of "deliberate intransigence aiming to impose a fait accompli on the ground and control the flow of the Blue Nile and operate the dam without taking any consideration of the water interests of the downstream countries."

On Ethiopia's statement following the talks, the ministry called it deliberately “misleading and distorting” and “totally inconsistent with the course of the negotiations.”

On Thursday, at the end of the final round of the meeting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, both Egypt and Ethiopia declared that the talks again reached a deadlock.

Next Monday, the three countries are scheduled to convene in Washington with the aim of resolving their disagreements within two days over the filling and operating of the Ethiopian hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile.