Cairo restates its objection in Istanbul

On Friday, 23 October, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Istanbul, on the sidelines of meetings of a four-party mechanism in which three European countries take part. According to Egypt's foreign ministry, the two men discussed the situation in Libya, and Abdelatty repeated his country's categorical rejection of the Libyan House of Representatives' ratification of the Turkey-Libya memorandum signed in 2019. He also urged respect for international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea when delimiting exclusive economic zones and continental shelves, principles he described as resting on justice and equality between states.

Fidan, who spoke in Istanbul after meeting counterparts from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Britain and Italy, said he understood Egypt's concerns about Libya. He stressed that consultation, coordination and joint work were needed to address those concerns and to support efforts toward security and stability in the country. He also said Ankara would soon announce 'very good news' about uniting the rival factions in eastern and western Libya.

Fidan's proposal and the Greek angle

Turkish diplomatic sources told Skai that Ankara supports, in principle, cooperation among all countries of the region on these questions. The same report says Fidan proposed talks among Turkey, Italy and Egypt, a format that left out Greece even though Athens' objections had been explicitly mentioned. Kathimerini reported the proposal as covering Turkey, Italy, Egypt and Libya. Fidan said he had put this position to his Egyptian counterpart and that it was also the position of Turkey's president, Kathimerini reported.

“We signed the memorandum of cooperation in 2019. Almost seven years have passed since then.”

Fidan argued that the agreement is already legally in force and said he was surprised that its approval by Libya's House of Representatives had turned into such a contested issue. He also said he clearly saw Greece's actions at EU level, which he called understandable. Skai's diplomatic sources framed Turkey's stance as openness to dialogue, while Egypt's account of the meeting centred on the rejection of the deal.

Egypt's legal objection

Egypt's objection centres on the ratification by Libya's House of Representatives of a memorandum between Fayez al-Sarraj's government and Turkey. Before the meeting, Abdelatty gave an interview to the Turkish broadcaster TRT in which he described the 2019 agreement in categorical terms.

“The 2019 agreement is completely null and void and lacks any legal force.”

In an X post, Abdelatty said the ratification was at the centre of the Istanbul meeting and that he had reiterated Egypt's categorical rejection to Fidan. Fidan's reply, as reported by Egyptian and Greek outlets, was limited to acknowledging Egypt's concerns and calling for continued dialogue. The reports do not give a date or venue for the talks that Fidan proposed, and they differ on whether Libya would sit at the table.