Egypt Rejects Libya-Turkey Maritime Deal Impacting Greek and Regional Waters

Egypt denounces stated Libyan continental aforesaid that violates its territorial waters arsenic Libya and Turkey motion lipid exploration woody which whitethorn impact Greece’s continental shelf. Photo of ENI lipid platform. Credit: Cipiota Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Egypt has denounced Libya’s continental support which violates the outer limits of its territorial waters, an issue that has been raised by Greece arsenic well.

The Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations, powerfully protested and denounced  the allegations contained successful the corresponding communications of Libya connected May 27 and June 20, 2025 regarding the outer limits of the Libyan continental shelf, arsenic good arsenic areas for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation successful the Eastern Mediterranean.

Egypt explicitly rejects the limits of the Libyan continental shelf, arsenic declared and reflected connected applicable maps, due to the fact that they overlap its occidental maritime boundary. Furthermore, it “denounces the maritime bound claimed to the East, arsenic it is located wholly wrong the Egyptian maritime zone, violating its sovereignty implicit its territorial waters (territorial zone) and its contiguous zone, arsenic good arsenic its sovereign rights successful its Exclusive Economic Zone and its continental shelf.” Egypt declares its determination to support its rights, which are founded connected International Law and the United Nations Convention connected the Law of the Sea.

The verbale emphasizes that the Libyan positions “are incompatible with the United Nations Convention connected the Law of the Sea and interruption the provisions of International Law and applicable planetary practice.” It reiterates the applicable Egyptian announcements and legislative acts, successful peculiar Presidential Decree 595/2022 connected the delimitation of the occidental maritime boundaries, arsenic good arsenic erstwhile verbal communications (2019, 2023 and 2024).

Libyan protestation against Greece’s planetary tender

Egypt’s verbale makes a peculiar notation to the Libyan protestation against Greece’s planetary tender for exploration southbound of the Peloponnese and Crete. Egypt “rejects and refuses to admit immoderate assertion to its EEZ and continental shelf, stressing that specified claims bash not instrumentality into relationship its inherent and inalienable sovereign rights” successful the maritime areas extending from its baselines successful the Mediterranean.

At the aforesaid time, Egypt rejects the memorandum of practice signed connected June 25, 2025 betwixt the Libyan National Oil Corporation and the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, which provides for geological and geophysical studies and seismic surveys successful 4 maritime areas. As it is emphasized, the alleged “Area 4” overlaps with Egyptian borders, and truthful Egypt rejects some the memorandum and immoderate measures, actions, oregon ineligible consequences arising from it. It besides rejects immoderate enactment oregon enactment wrong its maritime borders, based connected this memorandum. Accordingly, it reiterates that it does not admit the Turkish-Libyan memoranda of 2019 and 2022, describing them arsenic “null and void”.

In closing, Egypt declares its willingness and committedness to cooperate and negociate successful bully religion with neighboring states connected the delimitation of maritime zones connected the ground of International Law.

The Turkish-Libyan MoU

In 2019, Turkey and the then-Government of National Accord (GNA) of Libya signed a MoU that mapped retired a immense oversea country that disregards the beingness and maritime rights of Greek islands, including Crete and Rhodes, efficaciously establishing a corridor betwixt Turkey and Libya that affected portion of Egypt’s continental shelf.

Greece, on with a large fig of countries, views this statement arsenic a usurpation of International Law, specifically the United Nations Convention connected the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which grants islands their ain maritime zones.

In June, Turkish lipid institution TPAO and Libya’s National Oil Company signed a memorandum to behaviour seismic surveys connected 4 plots successful the maritime country betwixt Greece and Libya. The plots bash not interruption Greek territorial waters. However, successful the representation of intended surveys presented astatine the signing, the 2 countries are readying to bash further surveys wrong the Greek continental shelf.