Mediterranean Gas Row Fuels Tensions Between Libya, Greece and Turkey

Watan-The controversy sparked by the gas-exploration crisis in disputed maritime zones off Libya’s coast continues unabated. This crisis has unleashed a diplomatic rift between Libya, Greece and Turkey, and it has reignited debates over the maritime-boundary agreement with Turkey—deemed “null and void” by Greece—prompting a firm Turkish rebuttal.

In the ongoing exchange of statements, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Kytchli asserted that the 2019 memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Libya on maritime-boundary delimitation “is legitimate and fully compliant with international law,” stressing his country’s rejection of any attempt to infringe Turkey’s rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. He emphasized that Turkey will never permit “the violation of its lawful rights and interests through unilateral measures,” referring to European moves and statements condemning the agreement.

The Turkish official also lambasted recent European Union (EU) remarks as “biased and politically motivated,” arguing that they undermine regional peace and stability. Kytchli added that the conclusions of the European Council on June 26 demonstrate Greece’s and Cyprus’s insistence on imposing their “extreme” claims on the EU—claims, he insisted, that contradict both international law and basic principles of equity.

Ankara reaffirmed its determination to “vigorously defend its legitimate rights and interests” in the Eastern Mediterranean amid ongoing energy and maritime-sovereignty tensions in the region.

Earlier, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis declared the Turkey-Libya MoU “invalid and without any basis in international law.” He announced that he will soon visit Libya to seek a delimitation solution based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He said he has invited Libya to enter talks on maritime-zone boundaries and assured Libyan counterparts of Greece’s commitment to strengthening its good-neighborly relations.

Greek diplomatic sources, speaking to the Kathimerini newspaper’s website, responded to the Turkish foreign-ministry criticism by insisting that “international law must be fully respected and not applied selectively.” They added that actions such as refusing to sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, scrapping centuries-old UNESCO heritage arrangements, or threatening war in response to the exercise of lawful maritime rights do not warrant lecturing others. “Greece remains steadfast in upholding international law and good-neighborly relations—an obligation that must apply equally to all,” they said.

Local media reported that Libya’s House of Representatives plans to convene next week to put the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime-boundary treaty to a vote. The body, which originally opposed the agreement, surprisingly received a request in early June from the interim government in Benghazi to ratify it. In response, it formed a technical committee to study the pact—a move that appears to have triggered Greece’s offer to international companies to explore for gas south of Crete.

Earlier tensions between Libya and Greece escalated when Libya’s Government of National Unity summoned Greek Ambassador Nicholas Garillis over what Tripoli called Athens’s “unilateral steps” in the disputed waters. Libya’s foreign ministry lodged its protest against those measures as “violations of the Law of the Sea and a flagrant breach of Libya’s sovereign rights,” adding that it had taken all necessary diplomatic actions to safeguard its legal claims.

Simultaneously, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to dispatch Greek naval vessels to international waters off the Libyan coast. He framed the deployment as a “precautionary measure” to monitor migrant flows, noting it would be carried out “in cooperation with Libyan authorities and other European forces,” and warned, “Those who facilitate smuggling will not dictate who enters our country.”

The interim government—led by Osama Hammad—and the unity-government have both unequivocally rejected Greece’s tenders for oil and gas exploration south of Crete, arguing that part of those areas fall within Libya’s yet-to-be-delimited maritime jurisdiction and sovereign rights.

Roots of the present tension lie in the maritime‐boundary MoU signed in November 2019 between Turkey and Libya’s former Government of National Accord, which delineated exclusive‐economic zones in the Eastern Mediterranean and provoked immediate opposition from Greece, Cyprus and the EU. The dispute flared again in October 2022, when Libya’s Government of National Unity inked a new MoU with Turkey granting Ankara exploration rights in Libya’s territorial waters.