Edit: Ahmed Al-Kumy

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterich, announced support for the Nahda dam negotiations between Egypt, the Sudan and Ethiopia, explaining that he had met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and had examined the situation in Libya and the Middle East peace process.

The statement added that Guterich had expressed the readiness of the United Nations to support the negotiations on the African Union-led dam of the Ethiopian renaissance, and earlier, noting that the Ethiopian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Demeki Mikunen, had stressed the importance of resuming dialogue on bridging the renaissance in a spirit of compromise.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations emphasized the support of the United Nations for the mediation efforts of the African Union to bridge the renaissance.

In the same vein, Ibrahim Idriss, a member of the Ethiopian negotiating team at the Al-Nahda talks, said that his country would sign an agreement with Egypt and the Sudan only if its national interests and future development were secured through the utilization of its water resources.

For his part, the Sudanese Prime Minister, Abdullah Hamduk, said that the absence of a legally binding agreement on the Nahda dam threatened the Sudan socially and environmentally and affected the integrity of its dams. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, he stated that his country had rejected any unilateral action by Ethiopia, stressing that the Sudan was insisting on a binding agreement on the Nahda dam dam.