ADDIS ABABA – U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford raised questions on the U.S. administration’s balanced role over the negotiations of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Horsford raised questions to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who was involved in the GERD negotiations among Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan.
Ethiopia has pulled out of the latest round of US-mediated talks last week intended to produce an agreement with Egypt on the filling and operation of GERD. Ethiopia has asked the United States to postpone what was expected to be the final round of talks on GERD.
The Ethiopian authorities said the country needed more time for consultation with stakeholders internally. Secretary Mnuchin participated in separate bilateral meetings with the ministers of foreign affairs and the ministers of water resources of Egypt and Sudan.
Rep. Horsford stated that Mnuchin has been part of the debate surrounding the agreement on the feeling and operation of GERD based on provisions proposed by the legal and technical teams of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan and with the technical input of the World Bank.
“It is my understanding that the administration contains that we have a balanced approach on this issue taken in to account the interest of the three countries at the core of the conversation,” said Horsford during the hearing.
The Ethiopian Herald, March 5/2020
BY ABIY HAILU
