Sudan's Foreign Minister Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi officially asked the UN Security Council to hold a session at the nearest time on the developments in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam "GERD" dispute, the government said. The Sudanese foreign minister sent a letter on Tuesday to the President of the Security Council, which is currently Estonia, calling on the council to encourage all parties to the dispute to stick to their commitments in accordance with international laws, according to a statement by the Sudanese government spokesperson on GERD issue Omar Farouk. Al-Mahdi asked the council to urge parties not to take any unilateral actions, and called on Ethiopia not to go ahead with the second filling of GERD, which is supposed to take place in July despite rejection of both Egypt and Sudan. The top Sudanese diplomat stated if Ethiopia went ahead unilaterally with the second filling of GERD, this would put the lives and safety of millions of Sudanese citizens in dangerous. She called on the council as well as parties to engage meditation or find any other possible peaceful means to end the dispute in the outstanding issues in the GERD talks. She also called on the UN and the African Union as well other international and regional organizations to help in pushing the GERD talks forward to end this dispute. The letter also included in detail the Sudanese efforts in the past year to reach a legally binding agreement through a negotiation process that was launched by the African union but reached a deadlock last April due to lack of political will by Ethiopia to reach an agreement that fulfills the needs of all parties involved, the statement said. Earlier this month, Egypt also a letter sent to the president of the Security Council denouncing Addis Ababa's plan to move ahead unilaterally with the second filling of the GERD in July, a step that is expected to affect both downstream countries' water security. The 95-page letter included an overview of the decade-old negotiations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia as well as how the latest round, which was held under the brokerage of the African Union (AU), faltered due to Addis Ababa's intransigence.
