Libya’s eastern-based parliament has formally approved a contentious 2019 maritime boundary agreement with Turkey, marking an unexpected diplomatic reconciliation that brings an end to a bitter four-year boycott by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The vote by the House of Representatives, convened in the eastern city of Benghazi, ratifies a bilateral memorandum of understanding that established exclusive economic zones across the resource-rich Eastern Mediterranean, Al Jazeera reported. The decision bridges one of the most fraught geopolitical chasms in post-revolutionary Libya, aligning the Benghazi-based legislature with its administrative rivals in Tripoli, who originally brokered the pact alongside Ankara.
Shifting alliances across the Mediterranean divide
The ratification signals a profound pivot for General Haftar and his eastern command. When the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord signed the pact with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in late 2019, Haftar’s forces were actively besieging the capital. At the time, eastern authorities dismissed the deal as an illegitimate surrender of national sovereignty, decrying Turkey’s overt military intervention that ultimately repelled Haftar’s assault.
However, relations between Ankara and eastern Libya have quietly thawed over the past two years. Turkish commercial delegations and diplomatic envoys have frequented Benghazi, seeking lucrative reconstruction tenders following the catastrophic Derna floods in 2023. Al Jazeera reported that the parliamentary motion reflects this warming relationship, converting an informal commercial detente into binding statutory policy.
Disputed waters and regional energy ambitions
The pact delineates a contested sea corridor linking Turkey’s southern coast to Libya’s north-eastern shores, carving out extensive rights over seabed exploration in an area holding untapped natural gas deposits valued in the tens of billions of Australian dollars.
The boundary map ignores territorial claims and continental shelves asserted by Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, drawing immediate condemnation from Athens and Cairo when it was first unveiled. While Greece and Egypt subsequently signed a competing delimitation treaty in 2020, the eastern parliament’s endorsement gives Ankara renewed legal leverage to pursue offshore seismic surveys and drilling operations across disputed maritime coordinates.
Regional analysts observe that the move complicates attempts by Southern European capitals to court eastern Libyan authorities as a bulwark against Turkish influence in North Africa.
Ankara consolidates influence across a fractured state
For Turkey, securing parliamentary approval across both halves of the fractured Libyan state represents a major strategic victory. Ankara has long sought to insulate its Mediterranean maritime claims from internal Libyan political turnover, actively pursuing contacts with both Tripoli prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and the Haftar family, including the general's influential son, Saddam Haftar.
The endorsement also arrives amid a protracted domestic stalemate, with national elections repeatedly postponed and parallel administrations vying for control of the nation’s vast crude reserves. By ratifying the pact, the eastern parliament has shown that outside powers can achieve enduring bilateral pacts despite the persistent absence of a unified central government in Tripoli.