Nov 20, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Sudan says that it will withdraw from this round of negotiations with Ethiopia and Egypt on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) unless a mediation body has been established.
The three countries held a meeting on Thursday the three riparians failed to agree on the role that the African Union, the European Union and the United States can play to end the eight-year trilateral talks over the filing of the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian Dam.
Sudan then reiterated the demand to return the file to the AU, to strengthen the role of mediators and to support the Sudanese negotiating position to reach a satisfactory and binding agreement on the first filling and operation of the dam.
“During the meeting, Sudan stressed that it would not continue negotiations under the previous approach. Further, it demanded to return to the African Union (Bureau) to endorse the role of experts and to boost the negotiations politically to reach an agreement to the satisfaction of all parties,” said a statement issued by the irrigation ministry in Khartoum.
Sudan argues that such a method is unproductive because it has been repeatedly experienced in the past, without significant progress, stressed the Sudanese government.
The chairperson of the meeting said that negotiations will continue for the next ten days, despite Sudan’s refusal to continue until its demands are met.
“In spite of repeated clarifications of the Sudanese position, Mrs Pandor, Chairperson of the meeting – in clear procedural violation- called to continue negotiations for the next ten days,” added the statement.
The South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor insisted that the party should resume direct talks as it was the case before.
Sudan said that South African minister has committed a clear procedural violation.
Abbas Khalid considers this to be a procedural violation, according to the statement. He said “continuing negotiations is useless and has been tried repeatedly in the past without any progress.”
