The regional spokesman for the US State Department Samuel Warburg said on Sunday that the United States believes that diplomacy is the only solution to the issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He added that the international community is fully aware of the importance of the GERD issue for the Nile Basin region. The UN Security Council held a meeting over the GERD issue on Thursday after a call from the Arab League. Ethiopia informed Egypt on July 5 that it has begun the process of filling the second filling of the GERD reservoir. Egypt and Sudan say they want a legally binding agreement on filling and operating the GERD, while Ethiopia is trying to evade such an agreement.
