​ANKARA

Egypt has denied Ethiopian claims of reaching an agreement on the period of filling a hydroelectric dam being built on the Nile River.

Egypt and Ethiopia have been logged in a years-long dispute on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River.

Egypt views the GERD as an existential threat to its water share from the Nile and wants Addis Ababa to reach a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.

Ethiopia sees the dam as crucial for its development process and denies any harm to the water share of Egypt and Sudan, two downstream countries.

Last week, the Arab summit issued a resolution reiterating support for Egypt’s demand for reaching a binding agreement with Ethiopia on the filling and operation of the GERD.

But the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry on Monday criticized the Arab resolution, saying in a statement that Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa have reached an agreement on the period of the GERD filling.

But Egypt denied the Ethiopian claims, saying the statement contained “untrue allegations”.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry termed the Ethiopian statement as a “desperate attempt to drive a wedge between the Arab and African countries.”

The ministry accused Ethiopia of violating international law and good neighborliness principles by filling the dam without an agreement.

“Ethiopia should stop invoking what it calls colonial agreements to derogate from its legal obligations that it signed as a fully sovereign state, and its moral duty not to harm downstream countries,” it added.

There was no comment from the Ethiopian authorities on the Egyptian statement.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara