Ahmad 
The Renaissance Dam project has entered its final stage, as Ethiopia took advantage of Egypt’s preoccupation with the war in Gaza and Sudan with clashes on its territory, and announced a new measure at the Renaissance Dam that paves the way for the start of the fifth filling.
In details, newly taken satellite images revealed that Ethiopia has begun the process of raising the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam through the middle corridor, pouring concrete after drying it.
It also showed that there were two excavators operating for the first time up the middle corridor, possibly for the purpose of making probes or connections with the new concrete.
The new Ethiopian action comes a few days after the failure of the fourth round negotiations between the three countries on the dam, as the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation announced the end of the meeting without results, due to the continuation of the same Ethiopian positions that refused over the past years to take any of the technical and legal compromise solutions that would secure the interests of the three countries, and Addis Ababa’s persistence in retracting the understandings reached that meet its declared interests.
The Egyptian ministry stated that it has become clear the Ethiopian side’s determination to continue to exploit the negotiating cover to consolidate the reality on the ground, and to negotiate for the purpose of extracting an instrument of consent from the two downstream countries to absolute control of the Blue Nile independently of international law, stressing that it will closely monitor the process of filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, and that Egypt reserves its right guaranteed under international conventions to defend its water and national security in the event of damage.