The African Affairs Committee of Egypt’s House of Representatives is ready to use all available tools to escalate parliamentary, diplomatic, and political tension against Ethiopia with regard to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to a statement made by the committee on Sunday.
The committee will start the escalation by summoning the Ethiopian ambassador in Cairo to parliament to inform him of Egypt’s fear of unjustified and deliberate escalation of the situation on the part of Ethiopia, said the statement.
The Committee expressed its disappointment and anger over the recent developments on the topic of the Renaissance Dam, describing “clear intransigence from the Ethiopian side” and saying that the tripartite negotiations reached a dead end.
It noted that it is fully ready to prepare a series of letters to address the international, European and African parliaments on what it called “Ethiopia’s violation of international water law.”
The statement added that the committee would lodge complaints with regional and international bodies and human rights organizations to respond to Ethiopia’s threat to the Egyptian right to life posed by Ethiopia’s dismissal of Egypt’s right to the Nile waters, a threat that leaves millions of citizens in danger of thirst and prevents water access to land and houses in the north Nile Delta.
It explained that the parliament’s escalation of this subject reflects the tension and concern felt by representatives of the Egyptian people. The committee added that Egypt will not delay the escalation or tolerate threats to its inherent right to its share of Nile waters and will defend that share by all means and methods available to maintain national security.
“We are deeply astounded by the Ethiopian insistence on meeting the Egyptian negotiator’s flexibility and cooperative spirit with a noticeable rigidity and proactive rejection of all proposals that balance Egypt’s water interests, rights and national security and Ethiopia’s legitimate rights to development and prosperity,” the statement said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
