Nile| Egyptian official: PM Hailemariam agreed “on 3 principles”

Egyptian official claims that agreement has been reached with PM Haqilemariam Desalegne, who is in Tokyo.

Daily News Egypt reported today:

Prime Minister Hesham Qandil and his Ethiopian counterpart Hailemariam Desalegn agreed on “three principles” in dealing with Ethiopia’s construction of their Grand Renaissance Dam, according to Cabinet Spokesman Alaa Al-Hadidy.

The two prime ministers met in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Fifth International Conference on African Development, which began on Saturday and runs until Monday.

The first principle agreed upon between Qandil and Desalegn was that the dam would not affect Egypt’s share of Nile water.

Secondly, Qandil said that Egypt’s position was clear and would strongly uphold and insist that Ethiopia hold its commitments and prior agreements moving forward.

The two sides also agreed to wait for a committee made up of Sudanese, Egyptian, and Ethiopian experts to publish a report after inspecting the dam. The report is expected to detail the effects the dam would have on Egypt and Sudan.

Despite what the spokesperson claimed, it is doubtful that PM Hailemariam would recognize what Egypt calls her share of Nile waters.

In a related development, Egypt State Information Service reported today that the International Panel of Experts (a.k.a., Tripartite committee) issued its final report. The news claimed:

A tripartite committee comprising representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in addition to international water experts wrapped up its final session in Addis Ababa on Friday 31/3/2013 by issuing a final report on the impact of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the three African countries.

The report will be submitted to the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to see what necessary action should be taken in case the dam is found to have negative impacts on any of the three countries.

The committee urged the necessity of holding dialogue among the governments of the three countries to discuss the technical remarks and recommendations of the committee.

The report came after six sessions of talks that started officially on May 8, 2012 and were held in Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa.

However, there are expectations that Experts will recommend further studies rather than providing conclusions on the impact of the dam.

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[Stay Tuned]

Daniel Berhane

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