The United States and Iraq on Wednesday hosted a meeting of senior diplomats and U.N. officials to discuss the possible collapse of the Mosul hydroelectric dam, which U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said would create a catastrophe of "epic proportions."
Mosul dam has sustained structural flaws since its construction in the 1980s. If it collapsed, a wall of water would flood the heavily populated Tigris River valley.
Wednesday's meeting at the United Nations included Power and her Iraqi counterpart, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officials from the U.N. Development Program and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and other senior diplomats.