Negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia over GERD dam project stall

In a recent local Egyptian television interview with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, he stated that “Egypt had utilized all peaceful and diplomatic tools to reach a legally binding deal over the filling and the operation of the dam," prompting regional media to speculate over the potential for an escalating conflict. The showdown between Egypt and Ethiopia surrounds the Blue Nile dam, also known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a project that threatens to reduce a sizeable amount of Egypt’s annual water share from the Nile River, its main source of fresh water. Negotiations over the dam project, according to Minister Abdelatty, had reached an impasse.