Source: New Arab
An Emirati news report claimed this week that Egypt had offered to help Ethiopia secure sea access in return for flexibility over its use of the Nile’s water.
An Egyptian official on Tuesday denied a report claiming Cairo offered to help Ethiopia secure access to the Red Sea in exchange for flexibility over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Reports that Cairo could help the landlocked country access the sea are “entirely unfounded”, and Egypt’s position on the dispute remains unchanged, an unnamed official told Egypt’s state news agency MENA.
The official was responding to claims made by Emirati state-owned newspaper The National, which reported this week that Egypt had handed a proposal to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week.
The report, citing unnamed Egyptian sources, claimed that Cairo had offered to negotiate with its allies to provide Ethiopia with commercial access to the sea if Ethiopia makes concessions over its use of the Nile’s water and refrains from stationing its military in the Red Sea.
The proposal was also sent to the US, whose president, Donald Trump, recently offered to step in and mediate an agreement between the two countries.
Egypt and Ethiopia have been engaged in a fierce dispute for more than a decade over the construction of the $5 billion hydroelectric dam on the main tributary of the Nile River.
Egypt – one of the most water‑scarce countries in the world – relies on the Nile for almost all its freshwater needs and regards the GERD as posing an existential threat to its survival.
Ethiopia has refused to slow the filling of the dam’s reservoir or increase the volume of water it allows to flow downstream to Egypt.
Sea access is a vital strategic interest to Ethiopia, which lost its Red Sea coastline after Eritrea declared independence more than three decades ago.
Neither country has commented publicly on The National’s report.
