Thursday December 31, 2020
CAIRO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Egyptian foreign ministry summoned the Ethiopian Chargé d’Affairs to Cairo on Wednesday to provide clarifications over comments made by the spokesman of the Ethiopian foreign ministry, it said.
The comments “addressed” Egyptian internal affairs, the ministry added without providing more details.
It was not immediately clear what comments had angered Egypt. Egyptian officials were not immediately available to comment.However, Qatar’s Al Jazeera Media Network reported earlier today that Dina Mufti, the Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesperson, attacked Cairo for criticizing a giant dam that Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile and using the project to cover several internal problems.
Reuters could not immediately verify the translation of his comments by Al Jazeera.
Negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan failed so far to end a bitter dispute between the three countries over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) even after the reservoir behind the dam began filling in July.
Egypt, which gets more than 90% of its scarce fresh water from the Nile fears the multi-billion dollar dam could devastate its economy.
Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell