Tunisia says won’t accept harm to Egypt water security

ISTANBUL

Tunisia will not accept any harm to Egypt’s water security, Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Saturday.

"We look for fair solutions [to Ethiopia's dam project], but Egypt's national security is ours and Egypt's position in any international forum is our position as well," Saied said during a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Adel-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

Saied arrived in Cairo on Friday for a three-day visit to Egypt for talks on means of strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

"We will never accept any harm to Egypt's water security. We want fair solutions but not at the expense of Egypt and our [Arab] nation," Saied added.

Sisi has earlier warned Ethiopia against causing any harm to Egypt’s water share by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River.

While Ethiopia says the GERD is key to electricity generation and economic development, Egypt fears that the dam project will imperil its water share from the Nile, the country’s only source of freshwater. Sudan, meanwhile, is worried that filling the GERD without an agreement with downstream countries will affect the safety of its own dams.

Years of negotiations between the three countries have failed to make a breakthrough on reaching an agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara