Nile waters: “Algeria is not a mediator in the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia”

Algeria has been mandated neither by Egypt nor by Ethiopia to play the role of “mediator” in their current dispute over the Ethiopian projected construction of a major dam upstream the River Nile, the Algerian foreign affairs Minister, Mourad Medelci, said Sunday in Algiers.

Speaking during a joint press conference with his visiting Ethiopian opposite number, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Mr Medelci indicated that if Algeria had acted as mere facilitator, it did it under certain circumstances adding that the Ethiopian head of diplomacy was present in Algiers to take part in a meeting of the African Union’s peace and security council and in response to an invitation for an official visit addressed to him by the Algerian authorities.

Replying to a question related to the visit to Algeria by the Egyptian foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr last Thursday, Mr Medelci explained that the Egyptian official had taken part in the closing session of the Algerian-Egyptian follow-up committee held in preparation for the 7th session of the large bilateral cooperation commission.

The foreign Minister also affirmed that it was “quite normal” that he had evoked the Nile waters’ issue given “its major importance” with his Ethiopian and Egyptian counterparts during their stay in Algiers.

For his part, the Ethiopian foreign Minister, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that Ethiopia was determined to make every effort to achieve a salutary agreement with Egypt taking into account the interests of the two brotherly countries.