After a Libyan court suspended an energy exploration deal with Türkiye, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Thursday that the Libyan government informed Ankara it stands behind the hydrocarbon agreement.
Çavuşoğlu said that Türkiye contacted Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah right after the court decision.
"The text is a treaty, a memorandum of understanding. So therefore, just like the memorandums of understanding that Libya signed with other countries, it does not need to be passed by the parliament in Libya," Çavuşoğlu said during a joint press conference with his Rwandan counterpart in Kigali.
He underlined that the court has given a "decision" and not a "final verdict."
"The (Libyan) government said it is behind the agreement and that they are doing the necessary work. After all, this cooperation agreement is significant for them as the Libyan government and state," he added.
A Libyan court on Monday suspended a maritime and energy exploration deal signed with Türkiye last year as the North African country's future is continuing to be in crisis amid political turmoil.
The agreement had included scope for oil and gas exploitation in waters that Ankara and Tripoli have declared as their own but also claimed by Egypt and Greece in part.
The deal had spurred rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean and played into a political standoff in Libya between the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, in western Libya, and an eastern-based parliament that rejects its legitimacy.
Tripoli's appeals court, which issued Monday's decision, left room for the GNU to appeal the ruling.
Last year, Türkiye and Libya signed preliminary economic agreements that included potential energy exploration in maritime areas.
The agreements would allow for oil and gas exploration in Libyan waters and came three years after the two countries signed a maritime border deal.
In November 2019, Türkiye and Libya signed a maritime delimitation deal that provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states. Greek government attempts to appropriate huge parts of Libya's continental shelf when a political crisis hit the North African country in 2011 were averted.
The agreement also confirmed that Türkiye and Libya are maritime neighbors. The delimitation starts from Fethiye, Marmaris and Kaş on Türkiye's southwestern coast and extends to the Derna-Tobruk-Bordia coastline of Libya. In response, Egypt and Greece signed an agreement in August 2020, designating an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In recent years, Türkiye, already at odds with Greece over several issues, including competing claims to jurisdiction, energy exploration, and maritime boundaries in the Aegean, has seen deteriorating relations with its fellow NATO member owing to its increasing cooperation with Libya, wherein Ankara has been a significant supporter of the Tripoli administration.
