A senior official at Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has ruled out a return to previous negotiation frameworks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), despite recent US signals of renewed mediation efforts.
The source, who spoke to Al Manassa on condition of anonymity, said there are no current consultations or contacts regarding a new round of talks. “Resuming negotiations in their previous form is off the table,” the official said, citing repeated failures to achieve binding outcomes.
The remarks come hours after US Assistant Secretary of State and Trump administration advisor for African affairs, Massad Boulos, told Al Arabiya TV that the GERD is now a geopolitical reality, and that Washington was pursuing peaceful solutions to the dispute.
Boulos floated the possibility of a direct initiative by US President Donald Trump to bring together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“The dam is not just a concern for three countries,” Boulos said, “but for all nations that depend on the Nile.”
Egypt declared the end of formal negotiations in December 2023, asserting its right under international conventions to defend its national and water security if harmed.
The irrigation ministry source stressed that any new talks would require a clear political commitment from Addis Ababa to reach a legally binding agreement on the dam’s filling and operation—one that protects both Egypt’s water share and Ethiopia’s right to development.
The official also warned that data sharing mechanisms are vital to avoid harm to downstream countries. “Dam operation is no less dangerous than filling,” the source said, pointing to the devastating effects of sudden water releases earlier this month that flooded parts of Sudan.
In early October, Ethiopia opened emergency floodgates at GERD, triggering severe floods across six Sudanese states, including Khartoum, White Nile and Blue Nile, damaging homes, farmlands and displacing communities.
Water Minister Hani Sewilam said Egypt has developed advanced forecasting models in the past two years to monitor rainfall and predict flows into the Aswan High Dam. Speaking at Cairo Water Week, he said satellite surveillance shows Ethiopia deliberately discharged large volumes of water, harming both Egypt and Sudan.
Sewilam said the state is upgrading monitoring systems at the High Dam and Toshka spillway to guard against future emergencies.
President El-Sisi, in a recorded speech at the water forum’s opening session on Sunday, said Egypt would not tolerate “irresponsible” behavior by Ethiopia regarding the Nile, and vowed to take all necessary steps to safeguard the country’s water interests.
He said Egypt had spent 14 years in exhausting negotiations with a consistently obstinate partner, accusing Ethiopia of seeking to impose unilateral control over the river through claims of exclusive sovereignty.
“The Nile is the shared resource,” El-Sisi said, belonging to all riparian states and “cannot be monopolized.”
In response, Ethiopia issued a statement on Tuesday rejecting El-Sisi’s accusations and affirming its sovereign right to utilize its water resources. “The Nile is a shared resource, not a tool of threat,” the statement read.
El-Sisi has previously described the Nile as an existential matter, noting that it supplies more than 98% of Egypt’s freshwater. In March 2024, Minister Sewilam acknowledged Egypt has been impacted by the dam but said the country had absorbed the effects at a cost.
“The Declaration of Principles stipulates that if the dam causes harm to downstream states, compensation must be pursued,” Sewilam said. “And Egypt will demand that compensation when the time comes.”
