Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah has defended a deal signed earlier this week with Türkiye over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, which prompted objections from European nations.
The memorandum of understanding, three years after a maritime border deal, drew a reaction from Greece as well as from Dbeibah’s rivals in Libya, where two administrations are grappling for power.
“The Turkish-Libyan MoU is based on previous deals even prior to 2011,” Dbeibah said, referring to the year a NATO-backed uprising toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi and plunged the North African nation into years of violence.
“It’s our right to sign MoUs, and we have signed hundreds of them in order to promote cooperation with other states,” he noted.
Dbeibah’s government was installed in the capital Tripoli in the west of Libya as part of a United Nations-led peace process last year.
But he has been challenged since March by a rival government based in the east, which argues that his mandate has expired and that he has no right to sign international agreements.
The question of rights to Libya’s vast hydrocarbon resources has become more urgent this year as global energy prices have soared.
“Global demand for gas has grown sharply since the Russian-Ukrainian war, and we will continue to explore for oil in our territorial waters in cooperation with other states,” Dbeibah said in a speech late Wednesday.
Ankara and Tripoli said Monday’s deal aimed at benefiting both countries and will allow for oil and gas exploration in Libyan waters in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The accord builds on an agreement signed between Ankara and a previous Tripoli-based government in 2019. The deal demarcated the countries’ shared maritime borders in the Eastern Mediterranean to prevent any fait accompli by regional states.
Dbeibah on Wednesday said he was “not concerned about the stance of states that have opposed the deal.”
Greece denounced the energy agreement as “illegal” and said it would oppose any activity in the Eastern Mediterranean. The EU said the hydrocarbons deal “potentially undermines regional stability.”
Ankara said such statements had “no importance or value for our country,” and called on the bloc and its member states to “not overstep their boundaries and powers.”
Türkiye has been a prominent backer of Libya’s Tripoli-based government. Ankara’s support for Tripoli’s previous Government of National Accord (GNA) helped turn the tide of Libya’s civil war.
The oil-rich nation plunged into chaos following the 2011 overthrow and killing of Gadhafi, with myriad armed groups and foreign powers moving in to fill the power vacuum.
In August this year, Tripoli saw deadly clashes between forces backing Dbeibah and those loyal to his rival Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed by the Tobruk-based parliament as prime minister. It left 32 people dead and 159 injured.
Bashagha criticized the energy agreement and said the signing of such a deal was only “the inherent right of an elected authority.”
The violence, the worst since reaching a cease-fire in 2020, came amid military buildups by forces affiliated with Dbeibah and Bashagha, as both figures claim power and authority in the North African country.
For lasting stability, Türkiye deems the holding of free, fair, nationwide elections as soon as possible as crucial, in line with the aspirations of the Libyan people.
