Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok sent two separate letters to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last week rejecting his proposal for a transitional agreement on an initial filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in mid-July.

The Ethiopian government sent a letter to Egypt 10 days ago proposing a temporary agreement on the initial filling of the dam’s reservoir before continuing negotiations on a final agreement next Autumn.

Khartoum then informed Cairo of its rejection of the proposal, according to the Egyptian government official.

The Egyptian and Sudanese governments have agreed not to accept any agreements unless they are comprehensive, as Egypt is still determined that the final agreement be based entirely on the agreement negotiated in Washington.

The Renaissance Dam crisis became even more complicated last week after Ethiopia was absent from the last round of negotiations brokered by the United States and the World Bank, followed by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry announcing its withdrawal from the negotiations and its rejection of the draft agreement and that it would start to fill and operate the dam in July.