Russian and Egyptian Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Sameh Shoukry stressed no alternative to a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Libya and the need to start a dialogue between all sides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the conversation.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Saturday at a military base near the city of Sidi Barrani near the border with Libya that Egypt was ready to help Libyan tribes fight foreign interference by training and arming them. He also said that any direct intervention by Egypt in Libya now has legitimacy under international law. According to him, the "red line" for the advance of troops is the city of Sirte about 900 kilometers from the border with Egypt and the province of Jufra.
"The Ministers exchanged views on the situation in Libya, underlining the lack of a military solution and no alternative to immediate and sustained cessation of hostilities, parties to the conflict and start a dialogue involving all Libyan parties to agree mutually acceptable arrangements on all aspects of the settlement in line with the results of the Berlin conference," the message reads.
In addition, Lavrov and Shoukri expressed serious concern about the impasse in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and spoke in favor of intensifying the efforts of the "Quartet" of international mediators under the auspices of the UN in coordination with leading Arab countries in order to resume direct negotiations between the parties.
In a telephone conversation, Shoukri also expressed concern about the situation surrounding the construction of a dam by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile river.
Egypt on Saturday night officially asked the UN Security Council to intervene in the negotiations on the Ethiopian Renaissance dam being built on the Blue Nile, in order to avoid unilateral steps by Addis Ababa.
"During the conversation initiated by Egypt, Sameh Shoukry expressed concern about Egyptian-Ethiopian relations in connection with Addis Ababa building the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River and said that Cairo asked the UN Security Council to consider a possible settlement," the message reads.
According to the Ministry, Lavrov reiterated Russia's position regarding the need to achieve a mutually acceptable compromise based on the interests of all stakeholderss.
"Russia will stick to this position when discussing this matter on various multilateral platforms, including the UN," the Ministry stressed.
Ethiopia has been implementing a large-scale project to build the En-Nahda dam (Renaissance) on the Blue Nile since 2012. Its launch, according to experts, will inevitably lead to water shortages in Sudan and Egypt, located downstream. Since the start of construction, the three countries have held more than a dozen meetings to resolve issues of water distribution and the launch of the new facility, but disagreements remain.
According to local media, the construction of the dam, which is intended to become "the largest hydropower project in Africa", is completed by more than 71%. The full construction is planned to be completed in 2023. In early March, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachev said that filling the dam would begin in July, and by the end of the month, the reservoir should contain 4.9 billion cubic meters of water, electricity production would begin in February-March 2021.
The key issue in the trilateral negotiations on the dam is the time frame during which the dam's reservoir will be filled. Egypt has proposed filling it gradually over 10 years, given that the facility needs 74 billion cubic meters of water. Ethiopia is going to do it in just three years. In this case, Egypt and Sudan will miss 25 billion cubic meters of water per year, which threatens the two countries with drought and crop loss.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from RIA Novosti