CAIRO: Egypt has accepted a US invitation for a meeting with Sudan and Ethiopia over a protracted Nile dam dispute, the foreign ministry said.
The meeting, to be held in Washington, would bring together foreign ministers from the three Nile basin countries to try to break the stalemate in talks on Ethiopia's giant hydropower dam.
Egypt's foreign ministry said late Tuesday that Cairo had "immediately accepted" the invitation from Washington, without specifying when the meeting would take place.
Egypt has urged international mediation after saying the latest round of Nile talks that ended earlier this month had hit another "deadlock", following nine years of thwarted efforts.
Ethiopia, which says its project is needed to provide much-needed electricity, has insisted the dam would not harm downstream countries' water shares.
But Egypt is concerned the huge dam would severely reduce the flow of Nile waters and invokes its "historic rights" under decades-old treaties.
On Tuesday, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in parliament that "no force can stop Ethiopia from building the dam", adding that millions could be mobilised if necessary.
However, he emphasised that negotiations would be the best means to resolve the issue.
Last week, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced he would hold talks with the Ethiopian premier in Russia.
Both leaders are attending a Russia-Africa summit in Sochi this week.
Ethiopia has said the $4-billion dam will begin generating power by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022.
The Nile serves as a crucial artery for water supplies and electricity for the 10 countries it runs through.
Its main tributaries -- the White Nile and the Blue Nile -- converge in Khartoum before flowing north through Egypt to drain into the Mediterranean Sea.
Analysts fear the three Nile basin countries could be drawn into a conflict if the dispute is not resolved before the dam begins operating.
Egypt says accepts US invite to meet on Nile dam dispute
Egypt says accepts US invite to meet on Nile dam dispute
- Egypt's foreign ministry said late Tuesday that Cairo had "immediately accepted" the invitation from Washington
- The Nile serves as a crucial artery for water supplies and electricity for the 10 countries it runs through
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
