Egypt reopens Tripoli embassy after 12 years and raises concerns over Turkey-Libya maritime deal

On Saturday, Egypt reopened its historic embassy in Tripoli, Libya, after a 12-year hiatus. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty led the visit, meeting with Libya’s acting foreign minister, Taher al-Baour, to discuss trade, energy, and a disputed maritime boundary. The embassy had been closed since January 2014 following an incident where gunmen kidnapped five embassy staff.

Egypt had previously backed Khalifa Haftar, a military commander who controls eastern Libya, where a rival government is based. Abdelatty also met with Abdulhamid Dbeibah, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Unity. They discussed ways to improve trade, with Dbeibah acknowledging the positive impact Egyptian companies and workers have had in Libya's reconstruction efforts.

Abdelatty met with Libya’s acting oil minister, highlighting the need for faster progress on gas pipelines between the two countries and plans to refine Libyan crude in Egypt for export. Abdelatty expressed Egypt’s objection to a 2019 agreement between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli government, emphasizing that Egypt’s concerns should be considered when drawing maritime boundaries.

The agreement, which draws a boundary between Turkish and Libyan maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean, has been disputed by Greece and Cyprus, who believe it disregards their rights to explore oil and gas. Libya’s eastern-based parliament ratified the agreement on October 20th, despite previous opposition. The European Union later stated that the deal infringes on other countries' rights and has no legal effect on them.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan defended the agreement as "an entirely legitimate agreement, both from a legal and a political perspective."