Ethiopia Rejects Egypt’s Foreign Minister’s Statement, Calls it ‘Irresponsible’

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia in its official statement released on Thursday March 16th 2023, rejected the ‘irresponsible statement’ attributed to the Foreign Minister of Egypt threatening Ethiopia with yet another ‘all options are open’ declaration.

According to the statement, such a threat constitutes a flagrant breach of the United Nations Charter and Constitutive Act of the African Union and as well stands as a clear violation of the Agreement on the Declaration of Principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) signed on 23 March 2015 between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore called upon all concerned actors to take note of Egypt’s flagrant violation of principles of international relations, underscoring that no interest can be advanced through threats and intimidation.

“If approached in good faith and with full respect for principles of international law, amicable solution between the three countries is within reach in the negotiations under the auspices of the African Union”, MFA Ethiopia stated.

Ethiopia yet again reiterates its calls on the parties to re-engage the African Union platform and reach a negotiated solution on the GERD asserting that Ethiopia on its part remains committed to a win-win settlement of this matter.

The Ministry further states that Egypt must cease its callous and unlawful pronouncements for they could be dangerous or rather lead them into a difficult situation at one point.