The pursuit of collective welfare’

The pursuit of collective welfare’

Arab League Permanent Representative to the UN Maged Abdel-Fattah on Tuesday said that the UN Security Council is waiting to hear from the current chair of the African Union (AU), President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, on the outcome of AU-sponsored talks for a negotiated agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Last Friday, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan started a new round of video conference talks in the hope of settling differences that have persisted throughout on-off negotiations since the signing of the Declaration of Principles by the three countries in Khartoum in March 2015.

The AU-sponsored talks were agreed during a limited, video-conferenced Arab summit on 26 June, and then by a UNSC meeting that convened, also via video conference, on 29 June at the request of Egypt.

There has been no sign so far of any progress in the talks that are tentatively set to end on Friday. Throughout the week, statements coming from Cairo have been apprehensive about the possible outcome.

On Tuesday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that his country will shortly start the first filling of GERD, a mega dam with a 74 billion m3 reservoir, with or