Shoukry lobbies France for GERD support: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met on Friday with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, where he handed a letter from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to the French President Emmanuel Macron urging France to put pressure on Ethiopia to sign the agreement brokered by the US over the timetable for filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to a cabinet statement.

Shoukry is currently visiting a number of European capitals to shore up support for Egypt in its dispute with Ethiopia, less than a week after he toured the Arab world. Ethiopia, on the other hand, is reportedly working on a new proposal and will present it soon to Egypt and Sudan. Tensions over access to the Nile’s water have grown in recent weeks after Ethiopia backed out of the US and World Bank-mediated talks, accusing the US of being biased in favor of Egypt. Ethiopian military officials visited the dam on Thursday and later issued a statement vowing retaliation in the case of any attacks, in what AP is terming “a veiled warning to Egypt not to try to sabotage the dam.”