Trump offers to help Egypt mediate negotiations concerning the Ethiopian dam dispute
He expressed hope for a solution that would ensure a reliable water supply for Egypt and Sudan while allowing Ethiopia to sell or share electricity with the downstream nations.
US President Donald Trump told Egypt on Friday that he is ready to resume diplomacy to pressure Ethiopia to share water from a massive dam, a project that has angered Cairo.
Trump—who heightened tensions during his first term by suggesting Egypt could bomb the project—offered his services and praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a close ally who helped broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
In a letter to Sisi, posted on social media by the White House, Trump said, “I am ready to resume US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of Nile water sharing once and for all.”
Trump added, “The United States insists that no country in the region can unilaterally control the precious resources of the Nile River and cannot harm its neighbors in the process.”
He pledged that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) “will be at the top of my agenda.”
He said he hoped to find a formula that would guarantee water supplies for Egypt and Sudan and allow Ethiopia to either sell or provide electricity to the two downstream countries.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed inaugurated the GERD in September. The $4 billion project is Africa’s largest hydropower project and will more than double Ethiopia’s current electricity capacity.
Sisi has called the dam an existential threat, as Egypt, which is grappling with drought, depends on the Nile River for 97 percent of its water needs.
Over the past decade, attempts by the United States, the World Bank, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and the African Union to mediate the dispute over the dam, which is a symbol of national pride in Ethiopia, have failed.
Toward the end of his first term, Trump also said he hoped a solution would be found and added that if it wasn’t, Egypt’s response would be, “They’ll blow up that dam.”
This remark stunned both Egypt and Ethiopia, which summoned the US ambassador for an explanation and vowed to resist any attack.
Trump has a close relationship with Sisi, a former general who seized power in a 2013 coup and has since brutally suppressed the opposition. Trump once referred to Sisi as “my favorite dictator.”
