Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office defended the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, set to become Africa's largest hydropower plant, and said Ethiopia was working to resolve longstanding issues over the project with downstream neighbors Sudan and Egypt.

Topics: Ethiopia Egypt Nile dam

"Nonetheless, occasional statements of belligerent threats to have Ethiopia succumb to unfair terms still abound. These threats and affronts to Ethiopian sovereignty are misguided, unproductive, and clear violations of international law," his office said in a statement.

"Ethiopia will not cave in to aggressions of any kind," the statement added.

A separate version of the statement issued in Amharic featured more muscular language.

"There are two facts that the world has certified. The first is that there has been no one who has lived in peace after provoking Ethiopia. The second is if Ethiopians stand united for one purpose, it's inevitable, they will triumph," it said.

Abiy's office did not explicitly mention Trump, but its statement came the morning after the U.S. president weighed in on the dam dispute in support of Egypt.

"It's a very dangerous situation because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Friday during a ceremony marking a breakthrough normalization deal between Israel and Sudan.

"They'll end up blowing up the dam. And I said it and I say it loud and clear they'll blow up that dam. And they have to do something," Trump said.hs1020 ■