issue peacefully my guest today is timothy called us he's an on resident fellow at the tata institute for middle east policy he joins us now from cairo welcome to day africa let's start off with what is at the heart of this disagreement over the stab. the most pressing issue is the period of time that ethiopia will use to fill the reservoir behind the dam the faster they fill it the less water will flow out of us downstream to sudan and egypt and so each upon set period as long as possible to allow for water to reach it right so we now know that his prime minister went ahead and asa that for this president to negotiate this while washington is also mediating talks between the players which also includes sadat my question to you hey is it does president asked me not necessarily think that much will come out of the mediation by washington why go ahead and ask south africa's president to also come in and mediate i think i think both egypt and if you know if you're looking for leverage when they don't have any directly over one another and so the hope that perhaps prime minister ahmed spoke is that the s