Hydrocarbons: Greece and Egypt Reject Turkish-Libyan Agreement

The Egyptian and Greek foreign ministers on Sunday deemed “illegal” the memorandum of exploration for hydrocarbons in Libyan waters, signed between the Tripoli-based Libyan government and Turkey three years after a controversial maritime delimitation agreement.

“This agreement threatens stability and security in the Mediterranean,” said Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias in Cairo.

Tripoli, he further accused, “does not have the necessary sovereignty over this area” to seal such an agreement that is therefore “illegal and inadmissible.

In addition, said his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri, with an “expired” mandate, “the government of Tripoli does not have the legitimacy to sign agreements.

Since March, two rival governments have been fighting for power in Libya, which has been in chaos since the uprising that led to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The memorandum of understanding signed last Monday in Tripoli by a high-level Turkish delegation comes after the signing of a maritime delimitation agreement in 2019 through which Ankara claims rights over large areas in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece and Egypt, but also Cyprus, believe that this agreement violates their economic rights in a sector where vast gas deposits have been discovered in recent years.

“We will use all legal means to defend our rights,” Dendias warned.

The EU denounces since 2019 the new maritime delimitation and Paris has deemed the memorandum between Tripoli and Ankara “not in accordance with international law.”

In return for the 2019 agreement, Turkey had helped the government in Tripoli to repel an offensive in June 2020 by its rival, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, strongman of eastern Libya, to take the capital.

Ankara had sent military advisers and drones, inflicting a series of defeats on the forces of the marshal supported by Russia and Ankara’s regional rivals, notably the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.