The Egyptian parliament voted, on Wednesday, to form a special committee headed by its deputy to discuss the cabinet statement delivered by Prime Minister Mostafa Kamal Madbouly on the stalled negotiations on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. According to the official Egyptian news agency, Ali Abdel Aal, Speaker of the House of Representatives, referred the statement of the government, which was submitted by its head, and the ministers of foreign affairs, irrigation and housing, on the crisis of the Renaissance Dam, to a special committee, headed by Suleiman Wahdan, the second deputy of parliament. Ethiopia has repeatedly said that negotiations have not reached a dead end and that Egypt is stipulating “unreasonable demands”, according to previous statements by the Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Seleshi Bekele. Cairo fears a possible negative impact of the dam on the flow of its annual share of the Nile River water (55 billion cubic meters), while Sudan gets 18.5 billion cubic meters. In return, Ethiopia says it does not aim to undermine Egypt’s interests and that the dam is basically aimed at generating electricity.

Source: Ethiopian News October 10, 2019 03:22 UTC