Deputy speaker accuses Ethiopia of GERD “conspiracies: Deputy House Speaker Soliman Wahdan condemned what he described as “Ethiopia’s conspiracies” after the country’s representatives did not attend the latest round of US-sponsored mediation talks in Washington, DC on 27-28 February, Ahram Online reports. He said the absence was a ploy to fill the reservoir of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) before talks on the filing schedule were finalized, and showed Ethiopia’s “malicious intentions” toward the countries downstream of the Nile, Egypt and Sudan.