The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will return to Washington this week for another round of talks to reach an agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam after missing a deadline last month.
Diplomatic sources in Washington confirmed to The National that Sameh Shoukry of Egypt, Ethiopia's Gedu Andargachew and Asma Abdallah of Sudan will hold talks in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Sudanese and Ethiopian ministers for water resources, Yasser Abbas and Seleshi Bekele, are also expected to attend.
US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin will preside over the talks and David Malpass, president of the World Bank, will take part, the sources confirmed.
The US Treasury Department was not immediately available for comment. A State Department official refused to confirm the meetings, saying the “Treasury has the lead” on the issue.
Washington has hosted several rounds of talks between the parties since November, to try to reach an agreement on the $4.5 billion (Dh16.52bn) hydroelectric dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile and which Egypt considers an “existential threat”.
Cairo has asked Washington to mediate and, while initial plans to reach an agreement failed on January 15, a preliminary framework was agreed to 10 days ago.
The US Treasury said on January 31 that a preliminary agreement was reached on a schedule for a phased filling of the dam and a mitigation mechanism for the filling in the long term.
But such a proposal is subject to the final signing of the comprehensive agreement.
Differences over the amount that would fill the basin and the timeline technicalities appear to be still outstanding, the diplomatic sources told The National.
Egypt remains the most persistent party pushing for a deal given what is at stake in the dam, which is on the Blue Nile tributary in the northern Ethiopia highlands, from where 85 per cent of the river’s waters flow.
Egypt wants Ethiopia to agree to release a minimum of 40 billion cubic metres of water from the dam each year.
It has also demanded that the dam’s reservoir be filled over a longer period than the four years planned by Ethiopia, to keep water available during droughts.
A senior US official on a call with reporters on Monday expressed hope that a settlement will be reached. “Hopefully that situation is close to resolution ... let’s keep our fingers crossed and stay optimistic,” he said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ethiopia next week.
The US hosted the first meeting on November 7, with the three countries aiming to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the dam by January 15.
Michele Dunne, director of the Middle East Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, saw this week’s meeting as an attempt to reach an agreement by the end of the month.
"They missed the January 15 target, now they are trying for the end of February," she said.
Ms Dunne said the overarching question was: “Can there be co-operative process for deciding on the pace of filling the dam’s basin?”
“Ethiopia holds most of the cards as the rain falls mostly within their borders,” she said.
She said Egypt was in a weaker position and had turned to the US and World Bank for help.
“Egypt’s only leverage is that no one wants to see it destabilised,” she said.
But Timothy Kaldas, a fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, saw agreement in sight given where the parties left their last negotiations.
"The statement after the talks in Washington at the end of January was quite promising," he said.
His cautious optimism is rooted in the ability of the parties to have agreed, even on a preliminary basis, on the schedule for filling the dam’s reservoir.
“Given that this has been the most contentious point of disagreement, it’s an encouraging sign that they’ll be able to finalise an agreement later this month,” Mr Kaldas said.
A diplomatic source said that if an agreement were reached this month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi was considering a visit to Washington for the signing.
Credits
Produced by: Colour Yellow Productions and Eros Now
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diana Penty, Aparshakti Khurrana
Star rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2-litre%204-cylinder%20petrol%20(V%20Class)%3B%20electric%20motor%20with%2060kW%20or%2090kW%20powerpack%20(EQV)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20233hp%20(V%20Class%2C%20best%20option)%3B%20204hp%20(EQV%2C%20best%20option)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20350Nm%20(V%20Class%2C%20best%20option)%3B%20TBA%20(EQV)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMid-2024%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETBA%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
RESULT
Leeds United 1 Manchester City 1
Leeds: Rodrigo (59')
Man City: Sterling (17')
Man of the Match: Rodrigo Moreno (Leeds)
The specs: 2018 GMC Terrain
Price, base / as tested: Dh94,600 / Dh159,700
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Power: 252hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 353Nm @ 2,500rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.4L / 100km
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
Director:Michael Lehmann
Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
liverpool youngsters
Ki-Jana Hoever
The only one of this squad to have scored for Liverpool, the versatile Dutchman impressed on his debut at Wolves in January. He can play right-back, centre-back or in midfield.
Herbie Kane
Not the most prominent H Kane in English football but a 21-year-old Bristolian who had a fine season on loan at Doncaster last year. He is an all-action midfielder.
Luis Longstaff
Signed from Newcastle but no relation to United’s brothers Sean and Matty, Luis is a winger. An England Under-16 international, he helped Liverpool win the FA Youth Cup last season.
Yasser Larouci
An 18-year-old Algerian-born winger who can also play as a left-back, Larouci did well on Liverpool’s pre-season tour until an awful tackle by a Sevilla player injured him.
Adam Lewis
Steven Gerrard is a fan of his fellow Scouser, who has been on Liverpool’s books since he was in the Under-6s, Lewis was a midfielder, but has been converted into a left-back.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The biog
Age: 35
Inspiration: Wife and kids
Favourite book: Changes all the time but my new favourite is Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Best Travel Destination: Bora Bora , French Polynesia
Favourite run: Jabel Hafeet, I also enjoy running the 30km loop in Al Wathba cycling track
More coverage from the Future Forum
THREE
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Nayla%20Al%20Khaja%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Jefferson%20Hall%2C%20Faten%20Ahmed%2C%20Noura%20Alabed%2C%20Saud%20Alzarooni%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5
Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km
MATCH INFO
Championship play-offs, second legs:
Aston Villa 0
Middlesbrough 0
(Aston Villa advance 1-0 on aggregate)
Fulham 2
Sessegnon (47'), Odoi (66')
Derby County 0
(Fulham advance 2-1 on aggregate)
Final
Saturday, May 26, Wembley. Kick off 8pm (UAE)
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
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