El Sisi expected to discuss Gaza, Cairo's relations with Israel and Ethiopia's dam on the Nile with the US President, say sources
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will travel to Washington this month for talks with US President Donald Trump on a range of key regional issues, including relations between Egypt and Israel in the aftermath of the war in Gaza, and Ethiopia's Nile dam, sources told The National on Friday.
Mr El Sisi will ask Mr Trump to become directly involved in resolving Egypt's long-running dispute with Ethiopia over the latter's construction of a massive Nile dam that Cairo sees as a threat to its vital share of the river's water, the sources said.
They said Egypt wants Mr Trump to persuade Ethiopia that the dam should be run jointly by experts from all 11 Nile Basin nations, along with representatives from the African Union. It also wants the US leader's support for a new regional treaty that bars Nile Basin nations from building dams on the river without consulting the others.
Mr Trump's first-term administration mediated in the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia. A deal was reached but Ethiopia refused to sign at the last moment. Separately, a decade of negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, another downstream nation, have failed to produce a deal.
