Whats the Arab Leagues position on Ethiopias Nile dam?
Published on 16.06.2021 at 13h21 by APA News  The latest round of talks over the filling of Ethiopias controversial Nile dam have foundered and the Arab League has made its position clear.Tuesdays extraordinary meeting of Arab League Foreign ministers over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Doha provided the chance for the AL to signal whose side its on. A resolution from the meeting stated the Arab Leagues categorical rejection of policies that would compromise Egypt and Sudans share of water from the Nile, Africas longest and most important river. It even calls on the United Nations Security Council to intervene before the crisis brought by competing claims of the Niles resources could degenerate into tensions and open conflict in the region. North African neighbour Tunisia has been more vociferous in its opposition to Ethiopias Nile ambition aside from Egypt and Sudan. Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi spoke about defending the Egyptian and Sudanese rights to the Nile waters. Although the expressed aim of the League of Arab countries is for the furtherance of the interests of its member countries, the 76-year old organisation is notorious for its lack of unity over the years. Its members hardly sing from the same hymn sheet on issues of common interests. But the vexed issue of the Nile seems of late a unifying factor for the Arab Leagues Arabic-speaking African and Asian nations. The league is particularly incensed by Ethiopias unilateral decision to fill the dam for the second year running. Arab League members led by Egypt and Sudan hold the view that Ethiopia should be signatory to a binding legal arrangement with its downstream neighbours over the filling of Africas most expensive hydroelectric dam project valued at $4.8 billion. The dam is set to produce 6,000-megawatt of electricity which Ethiopia intends to commercialise and supply to its Horn of Africa neighbours such as Djibouti and Eritrea willing to buy. Tunisias FM Jerandi put it bluntly to his peers when he said the water interests of its neighbours are an existential Arab security challenge. Ethiopias insistence that its Nile dam project is a a lifeline for its emerging economy has always met with vociferous opposition from its downstream neighbours who sometimes resort to tough warnings. In April Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi warned that his country would never bow to Ethiopian interests on the Nile and compromise its water security. Although he stopped short of beating the drums of war, the Egyptian leader made oblique references to it. A few days ago the latest round of talks sponsored by the African Union (AU) had failed. Developing story