Eastern Libya Ratifies Sea Zone Worth Hundreds of Billions

Residents of the eastern Mediterranean face a new geopolitical reality after Libya's House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a maritime agreement with Turkey. The vote creates a defined economic corridor linking the two nations' coastlines, a move that immediately alters the strategic balance in the region.

The agreement centers on vast natural resources beneath the seabed. Recent geological surveys indicate that natural gas reserves in the disputed waters could be valued at several hundred billion U.S. dollars. Both Ankara and Tripoli intend to exploit these deposits jointly, securing their economic rights to the energy source.

The eastern Libyan parliament reversed its previous stance on the deal. In 2019, the government in the east opposed a similar accord that Turkey signed with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in the west. That original agreement was reached during the civil war, a period when Turkish forces intervened militarily to support the Tripoli government against the offensive led by General Khalifa Hifter.

Political dynamics in the east have shifted since that conflict. Turkish firms have secured reconstruction contracts worth billions of dollars, and the state oil company TPAO is currently conducting seismic surveys with Libya's National Oil Corporation. Ankara has also increased the supply of weapons and training to Hifter's forces, a strategy aimed at countering Egyptian and Russian influence in the region.

Greece has rejected the new arrangement, arguing that it violates the sovereign rights of third states. The Greek Foreign Ministry stated on X that the EU supports its position, describing the memorandum as null and void because it is inconsistent with the Law of the Sea. Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, confirmed that the vote infringes upon the rights of neighboring nations.

The core of the dispute involves the status of Greek islands such as Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. Athens relies on Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which grants inhabited islands the same exclusive economic zone rights as mainland territory. Greece cites a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling involving Colombia and Nicaragua to support its claim for a fair demarcation of coastal boundaries.

Turkey maintains that the specific geography of the Mediterranean requires a different interpretation. Ankara argues that granting full exclusive economic zones to every small Greek island would effectively cut Turkey off from the open sea. Because Turkey never signed the UN convention, it does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal, a stance that has led to legal disagreements over how to divide the waters fairly.