Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sewilam, said Ethiopian politicians need to understand that laying a road inside their own borders and building a dam on an international river are two different things.

That is not my interpretation, it is international law, he told a briefing attended by international journalists, adding that he does not know where the idea came from that damming a river shared by more than ten countries is one state's sovereign right.

He noted that Ethiopia built the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam for power generation, but said the electricity it produces is going into bitcoin mining rather than to ordinary Ethiopians.

Sewilam also confirmed that Egypt does not oppose the dam South Sudan plans to build on the Nile, saying the two countries had discussed it in advance.