The Egyptian Foreign Minister added, in an interview with Al-Sharq Channel, that water is “an existential issue and a matter of life or death for Egypt,” and that Cairo is capable of defending its interests and water security in the case of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
He stressed that Egypt will defend itself in the event of a threat, stressing “Egypt’s right to protect and maintain its water security.”
He stated that Egypt is “the only country that depends entirely on a single source of water, which is the eternal Nile River,” noting that this river is “international and crosses borders, and therefore international law applies to it.”
Asked about not ruling out military action in the Renaissance Dam case, Abdel Aati said: “We will defend our interests within the framework of international law.”
He continued: “Egypt is a country capable of defending its interests and water security, and certainly in the event of harm we will defend our interests without any leniency, because the matter concerns the interests, security and stability of more than 110 million people, and we cannot place the interests of this great people hostage to the whims of a party here or there.”
He stressed that “the Nile waters are not a gift from any party, but rather a gift from God Almighty, and they are natural resources that we share as long as they cross borders.”
He said, “The Nile is an international river, not a river owned by Ethiopia or any other country, but rather a transboundary river and therefore the rules of international law apply to it.”
He pointed out that “all negotiation paths with Ethiopia have stopped since 2023, as a result of evasion and negotiation in bad faith,” noting that these negotiations took 13 years “without reaching anything, and there was exploitation of the negotiations to impose a fait accompli by building the dam.”
The Egyptian Foreign Minister called for a “binding legal agreement on the operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,” stressing that this is a matter that “cannot be waived,” and that this agreement must include legal principles that “cannot be waived, the most important of which is the principle of not causing any harm to the interests of downstream countries, in addition to the importance of prior notification of any projects carried out on the Nile River.”
Source: Al Sharq Channel
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2024-09-24 00:41:04
