Arab states call for UNSC intervention over Ethiopian dam dispute

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Palestine on the agenda of Arab League foreign ministers’ talks in Doha.

The foreign ministers of Arab countries have backed calls for the United Nations Security Council to intervene in a long-running regional dispute over a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s main tributaries. The decision announced by Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit came after a meeting on Tuesday in Qatar called by downstream Nile countries Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia is pinning its hopes of economic development and power generation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. But Egypt, which relies on the Nile for as much as 90 percent of its freshwater, sees the project as a potentially existential threat, while Sudan is concerned about the operation of its own Nile dams and water stations.