Egypt rejects US quid pro quo over Gaza and Ethiopia dam

Egypt has rejected a quid pro quo offered by the US that would see it mediate an end to the crisis over Ethiopia’s Nile dam in return for Cairo allowing Israel to displace Gaza’s population into Rafah, high-level Egyptian diplomatic sources told Al Araby Al Jadeed, the Arabic-language sister site of The New Arab. 

One Egyptian diplomat told the news outlet that the Trump administration had offered what one senior US official called a "decisive intervention" to solve the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). 

In return, Egypt would need to back Israel’s plan to confine millions of Palestinians in a concentration camp close to the Rafah border. 

Israel’s defence minister earlier this month announced plans to erect a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah into which the entire Palestinian population will eventually be concentrated. 

Officials in Cairo see the plan as a step towards forcing the Palestinians across the border into Egypt, the diplomat told Al Araby Al Jadeed. 

They warned that displacing Gaza’s population towards the Rafah would inevitably lead to direct confrontation between Egypt and Israel and have rejected Washington’s offer, according to the news outlet. 

Cairo has also long sought US intervention in the GERD dispute in the hope that it could pressure Ethiopia into backing down on its plans to limit the flow of the Blue Nile. 

The two countries have been at loggerheads for years over Ethiopia’s construction of the $5 billion hydroelectric dam, which threatens to exacerbate water shortages in Egypt, one of the most water insecure countries in the world. 

There have been concerns in Egypt since the start of the war about Israeli ambitions to expel the Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula. 

US President Donald Trump has attempted to pressure Egypt and Jordan into resettling displaced Palestinians as part of his scheme to build a 'riviera' on the ruins of Gaza. 

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi repeatedly rejected the demands as a national security red line. 

The possibility of the US intervening in the GERD dispute was floated by US president Donald Trump, who told reporters earlier this week that his administration is "going to have that solved very quickly". 

In a statement on social media, Al-Sisi said he "appreciates President Trump’s keenness on reaching a just agreement that safeguards the interests of all parties regarding the Ethiopian dam, as well as his recognition of the Nile as a source of life for Egypt".