Egypt “will not accept or allow” any party to control the flow of Nile water to downstream countries, an Egyptian source said on Sunday, responding to recent remarks by Ethiopia’s water and energy minister about building additional dams on the river.

The unidentified source said in remarks carried by Egypt’s official news agency MENA that statements attributed to Ethiopian Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa about building additional dams on the Nile and controlling water flows to Egypt and Sudan “represented a continuation of Ethiopia’s unilateral approach and a blatant violation of international law”.

The remarks reflect “Addis Ababa’s continued delusions that it can impose control over a shared international river and subject it to the will of a single country”, the source said.

“The Egyptian state has multiple and wide-ranging tools capable of defending the interests of the Egyptian people in the Nile”, the source said, without elaborating.

Egypt “will not accept or allow any party to control water flows to downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan”, the source said.