CAIRO, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he valued an offer by U.S. President Donald Trump to mediate a dispute over Nile River waters between Egypt and Ethiopia.
In a post on X, Sisi said on Saturday that he addressed Trump’s letter by affirming Egypt’s position and concerns about the country’s water security in regard to Ethiopia’s disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
On Friday, Trump said that he was ready to restart U.S. mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve the dispute over the Ethiopian dam, which both Egypt and Sudan consider a serious threat to vital water supplies.
Egypt has long opposed the project because of worries about its future supplies of water from the Nile, on which it is heavily dependent. Sudan, another downstream country, has expressed concern about the regulation and safety of its own water supplies and dams.
Sudan’s army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also welcomed Trump’s mediation offer on Saturday.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation with more than 120 million people, sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions. It has repeatedly rejected Egypt’s claims.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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