Libya Parliament speaker denounces Turkey pact

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Aguila Saleh, speaker of the House of Representatives based in the eastern city of Tobruk, has denounced the government in Libya, which recently signed a maritime boundaries pact with Turkey, as an “illegal entity" and described the MoU as "null and void."

"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," Saleh says in the letter. 

In the letter, which was seen by Kathimerini, Saleh analyzes all the parameters of the contentious agreement and rejects the notion that the two states share common maritime boundaries, while stressing that the state of Libya is not bound by the treaty.

He says the MoU shows "a great deal of ignorance" of the delimitation of the maritime boundary.

"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," he explains.

"The signing of this agreement without ratification by the Libyan House of Representatives aims to cede the sovereignty of the Libyan State and its legitimate rights to the Republic of Turkey to enable it to invest in this area, which is null and void by all standards."

He then calls on the UN not to recognize the MoU and to consider it as "non-existing," noting that the Libyan Parliament does not recognize it and the country "is completely relieved of any resulting obligations whatsoever."

Saleh is expected to visit Athens on Thursday.

Since 2014, Libya has been split into rival political and military factions based in Tripoli and the east.