Libya's own Parliament calls agreement with Turkey as invalid

Libya's parliamentary speaker, Aguila Saleh Eissa sent a letter on Monday to United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres declaring the Turkey-Libya memorandum of understanding (MoU) on maritime zone demarcation as invalid.

In his letter, Eissa said that the Libyan House of Representatives does recognise the MoU signed by Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister of the UN-recognised National Accord Government, Fayez Al Sarraj on November 28, which includes the demarcation of maritime zones between the two countries. Notably, the countries do not even share a maritime border.

"The Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord, its President and members, are an existing illegal entity because they have never been sworn in before the legitimate Libyan parliament ever since they assumed office," Aguila Saleh Eissa said.

The MoU, which is in reality an agreement, he said, is not only legally "invalid", it also "shows a great deal of ignorance of the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the State of Libya and the Republic of Turkey."

Among other things, the speaker said "Libya and Turkey do not have common maritime boundaries. There are several countries including Greece and Cyprus, in addition to the overlap of maritime borders with other countries, including the Arab Republic of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (CNUDM)," and he called on the UN to issue a resolution withdrawing its recognition of the Government of National Accord.