CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s president met with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Cairo on Tuesday before Mnuchin’s first visit to Sudan since Khartoum’s pariah status ended.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s office said in a statement that the president and Mnuchin discussed mutual and regional issues, including the latest developments in negotiations with Sudan and Ethiopia over a disputed dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile River .
The statement said that el-Sissi appreciates US efforts in the dam negotiations last year, which resulted in a draft agreement made by the US to resolve the years-long dispute over the huge project.
The three Nile Valley countries met on Sunday in South Africa’s latest onslaught, the current president of the African Union, which is mediating an agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Experts from the three nations and the AU met on Monday, but Sudan boycotted the meeting and insisted on a greater role for AU experts in the negotiations.
Egypt initialed the draft agreement, drawn up by the United States in February, but Ethiopia did not attend the signing ceremony and accused President Donald Trump’s administration of siding with Egypt. Sudan attended the meeting, but did not sign.
The United States has suspended some aid to Ethiopia due to the “lack of progress” in the negotiations and “US concern about Ethiopia’s unilateral decision to start filling the dam before an agreement and all necessary security measures are in place”.
Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam has caused severe tensions between the three nations.
Mnuchin was scheduled to travel to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday to meet with the country’s leaders, according to the Sudanese state news agency SUNA.
It would be the first visit by a top US official since Washington last month approved the removal of Sudan from the United States’ list as sponsors of terrorism.
The SUNA report said that Mnuchin would discuss with General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, a possible relief from US economic aid debt. He gave no further details.
Mnuchin said last month that he would work with Congress and the transitional government in Khartoum to advance Sudan’s efforts to secure debt relief in 2021.
Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.