World Bank to join GERD talks as a neutral fourth party mediator? Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan could call on the World Bank to help mediate talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry suggested during a visit to Addis Ababa yesterday. Discussions between the three countries recently reached an impasse after Ethiopia and Sudan refused to acknowledge the results of environmental impact studies proving the dam would negatively impact Egypt’s Nile Water Supply. Shoukry said that the World Bank would act in a purely technical capacity as an objective fourth party mediator to help end the stalemate, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu “did not comment on the Egyptian proposal” at the press conference that followed his meeting with Shoukry yesterday, Reuters reports. Shoukry, however, stressed yesterday that the trilateral Declaration of Principles signed in 2015 requires consensus over the results of the studies before Ethiopia can fill up the dam’s reservoirs.

The minister further discussed the issue with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in a separate meeting.