Page 6 - DMEA Week 44 2022

DMEA SECURITY & POLICY DMEA

Egypt halts talks with Libya on

normalising diplomatic relations

MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA CAIRO has halted talks with Ankara over nor- from Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, France and
malising relations on the grounds that the Turk- the EU, which have all argued that the accord
ish side had not shown any signs of changing its may violate their economic rights and/or inter-
policies on Libya, Egyptian Foreign Minister national maritime rights.
Sameh Shoukry told the Al-Arabiya news chan- Turkey supports Dbeibah’s Tripoli-based
nel on October 29. government – known as the Government of
The two countries had held two exploratory National Unity, or GNU – diplomatically and
dialogue rounds in a bid to normalise their tense militarily, while Egypt recognises the rival gov-
relations. However, they did not reach any con- ernment of Fathi Bashagha, endorsed by the
crete agreements, especially with respect to the Libyan parliament.
situation in Libya, where they are both strug- Cairo’s decision to halt negotiations came
gling for influence. several days after Dbeibeh, who also serves as
Turkey and Egypt almost cut off relations Libya’s defence minister, signed two military
with each other following the former’s criticism defence agreements with Turkish Defence Min-
of the military regime now controlling the lat- ister Hulusi Akar. This move is expected to raise
ter country. They have also sparred over Turk- concerns among Dbeibah’s critics in eastern
ish authorities’ agreement to host the Egyptian Libya, where many are more partial to Khalifa
government’s political rivals from the Muslim Haftar, the leader of the Tobruk-based Libyan
Brotherhood group. National Army (LNA).
Bilateral relations did improve slightly in The first agreement aims to raise the effi-
early 2021, as both governments agreed on ciency of military aviation capabilities in Libya.
reciprocal visits and discussions to resolve The second agreement included implementa-
tensions. They have deteriorated since then, tion protocols for the security deal signed by the
however. Presidential Council of the former Government
Cairo has criticised the government of Libya’s of National Accord (GNA) in 2019.
acting Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, Last month, the GNA and Turkey signed
which is based in Tripoli, for signing a prelim- preliminary agreements to boost cooperation
inary deal with Turkey earlier this year on joint on issues including potential energy explora-
exploration for oil and gas in the Mediterranean tion in maritime areas. The Benghazi parliament
Sea. The deal is based on the 2019 agreement has asserted that the agreements are illegal, as
between Tripoli and Ankara, which sought to they were signed by a government that had no
demarcate their maritime borders in the most mandate.
favourable possible way. Hours after the maritime border deal was
The division lines drawn under the 2019 deal announced, both Egypt and Greece challenged
would allow Turkey to lay claim to large and its legitimacy. Dbeibah commented that he was
potentially natural gas-rich areas of the eastern not concerned with the positions of other states
Mediterranean. As such, it has drawn protests on the deal. ™

Turkey and Libya signed a maritime border agreement in 2019 (Image: MFA.gov.tr)

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