On Tuesday, Egypt sent an official letter to the United Nations Security Council Chairman, against the backdrop of recent developments related to the Blue Nile and the announcement of Ethiopia about the completion of the construction and operation of the Renaissance Dam, which Cairo described as “contrary to international law.”
In his speech, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel -Ati wrote that the Ethiopian dam represents a “unilateral action” that is not based on any legal legitimacy, stressing that “despite all the weak endeavors to grant the Ethiopian dam a false cover of acceptance and legitimacy, but the dam remains a single action contrary to international law and norms and does not result in any consequences that would affect the ruling legal system of the eastern Nile basin according to the eastern basin. For international law, in addition to the recent Ethiopian actions of a new breach, added to a long list of Ethiopian violations of international law, among them ignoring the presidential statement issued by the Security Council on September 15, 2021.
The Egyptian discourse of the UN Security Council referred to Egypt’s fixed position in “rejecting all Ethiopian unilateral measures in the tail river and not being accustomed to it or accepting its consequences on the existential interests of the peoples of the countries of the Mawsa Egypt and Sudan.”
The speech stated that “since the unilateral start of the Ethiopian dam project and over the past years, Cairo has practiced the best levels of restraint and chose to resort to diplomacy and international organizations, including the United Nations, not a result of the inability to defend our existential interests, but rather from Egypt’s firm conviction of the importance of enhancing cooperation and achieving the common interest between the peoples of the Nile Basin countries in accordance with international law, in order to achieve development interests And take into account the concerns of the estuary countries “
On the other hand, Cairo accused Addis Ababa “of adopting intransigent positions, seeking to procrastinate the negotiations, and impose the fait accompli, driven by a political agenda – not development needs – to mobilize the Ethiopian interior against an imaginary enemy, invoking false claims about sovereignty on the Nile River, which represents a common property for its risk.”
Egypt stressed that “any false perceptions that Cairo may turn a blind eye to its existential interests in the Nile River are purely illusions, and that Egypt is adhering to the implementation of international law in the Nile River, and will not allow the Ethiopian endeavors to dominate the management of water resources in a unilateral manner, and reserves its right to take all measures guaranteed under international law and the United Nations Charter to defend the existential interests of its people.”
