KHARTOUM, Dec. 10, (Xinhua/GNA) -Sudan on Wednesday called for continuing the negotiation over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) until a satisfactory binding deal is reached.
The call was made by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry during a briefing it held for the ambassadors of the EU and North and South America to Sudan on the latest developments of the GERD negotiation and Sudan’s position on the issue, according to a Ministry’s statement.
“Sudan will be the most affected of all parties in case a binding deal is not reached over the filling and operation processes,” Mohammed Sharif Abdalla, Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Noting the risks posed by the GERD to Sudan’s citizens and strategic facilities on the Blue Nile course, especially the Roseires Dam, Abdalla reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the mediation of the African Union.
Sudan decided not to participate in a ministerial meeting regarding the GERD convened on Nov. 21.
Sudan demands the GERD talks go beyond the level of irrigation ministers to the leaders of the three countries and the African Union and U.S. observers be given a status of mediators, changes in which Egypt and Ethiopia find no interest.
Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the African Union over technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD.
Ethiopia, which started building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile Basin countries that rely on the river for its fresh water, are concerned that the dam might affect their water resources.
GNA