“Colin Thomas-Jensen, a senior adviser with WestExec Advisors and former Africa policy adviser to one-time U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, said the U.S. handling of the dispute had been ‘clumsy’ but added it was unfair to blame the Trump administration for how bogged down the issue has become.
“‘The crisis over the GERD has been building for nearly a decade, and yet there’s been negligible international effort to construct a mediation process with multilateral support from countries with leverage over the parties, including China and the Gulf states,’ he said. ‘Instead, the Egyptians have been forum shopping with the United States and others while the Ethiopians have dragged their feet…'”