Tunisia seems willing to propose again to the UN Security Council a new resolution on the GERD dam, after the two already proposed – in agreement with Egypt – and not supported by the majority of members.
The Ethiopian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, met on August 26 in Addis Ababa the ambassadors of the member states of the UN Security Council, inviting them to reject the proposed resolution that Tunisia is going to present during the next days.
According to Ethiopia, the general orientation of the United Nations – which also emerged at the last meeting on the subject last July – has always been to invite the three countries involved (Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan) to define an amicable solution through multilateral talks between them, with the support of the African Union.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, moreover, is engaged at this very moment in defining proposals to be submitted to the three countries in talks promoted within the African Union.
Egypt, on the contrary, is trying to take advantage of the presence of Tunisia as a temporary member of the Security Council to convey the proposal of a resolution that would broaden the context within which to bring the negotiations and force Ethiopia to sign a binding agreement for the management of the dam reservoir, making it at that point according to Addis Ababa difficult to solve the whole matter.
The orientation of the members of the UN Security Council, in the two previous meetings on GERD promoted by Egypt with the contribution of Tunisia, have shown a general posture of the members generally against the possibility of pursuing the path of a resolution on a matter of this nature. The most recent, decidedly stark expression of this position was last July, and it is therefore unclear what Egypt and Tunisia believe they can achieve differently so soon after the previous proposal for a resolution.
