The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani chaired the consultative meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League yesterday in Doha.
The extraordinary session of the Council discussed the issues related to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and also the most vexing issue of the region, the Israeli aggression and deaths of hundreds of innocent people, including children in Palestine.
The states in the downstream region, especially Egypt and Sudan, of the Blue Nile river has been opposed to the construction of the dam in Ethiopia which they fear will bereft them of the lifeline on which they depend for drinking water and irrigation. Ethiopia’s unilateral action of filling the dam exacerbated the issue, which has been discussed in the regional African level such as in the African Union, but without any tangible positive outcome.
Now the Arab League has rallied behind the downstream countries and asked the United Nations Security Council to play its role in finding a solution to the problem and avoid another regional confrontation in the region over water.
The Doha meeting of the Arab Foreign Ministers discussed the issue in detail and called on the Security Council to discuss the matter to find an amicable solution.
Ethiopia had begun the construction of the dam in 2011 and started to fill the GERD reservoir recently, an action in violation of Egypt mandate that the dam not be filled without a legally binding agreement over the equitable allocation of the Nile’s waters. Egypt termed the filling of the dam an existential threat, as it fears the dam will negatively impact the country’s water supplies.
Now it is high time that the international community under the leadership of the Security Council came up with a solution to the problem.
Regarding the Palestinian issue, despite Israel incessantly going ahead with its aggressive actions against a defenceless people, no major country in the world raised a voice in support of the Palestinians. Even though a fragile ceasefire is holding in the region, the occupational forces are continuing with arrests and killing of innocent people. If the Security Council cannot forge a lasting solution for the problem, it will be pushing the Palestinian children into the abyss of yet another disaster.
Qatar is yet again playing its role in dispute resolution with its seasoned and pragmatic diplomacy and through hosting the affected countries in a bid to resolve regional conflict.
