This is not just a flagrant violation of international maritime laws. It is also a confirmation that both parties have no intention or desire to support the UN-led international effort to restore stability in Libya by holding parliamentary and presidential elections leading to a legitimate, stable government capable of maintaining the country’s unity and territorial integrity.

Debeibah’s General Unity Government (GNU) was approved by the UN-overseen Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in February 2021 to carry out one principal mission during a short transitional period: holding presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 December 2021. This was not the only commitment Dbeibah made when he took over as interim prime minister. Together with the head of the Presidency Council, Mohamed Al-Menfi, he pledged not to take part as a candidate in those elections.

Dbeibah failed on both counts. No elections were held on 24 December, and he broke the commitment he had made to the UN and the international community not to run for president. As a matter of fact, since he took over as premier, he has spared no effort to abuse public funds in order to create a popular base that would back him in any upcoming elections within a very divided and fractured political scene in western Libya, dominated by militias and extremist Islamist groups backed by Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood.

When Dbeibah’s term expired in late 2021, in February the only legitimate Libyan elected body, the Tobruk-based parliament appointed former interior minister Fathi Bashagha as interim prime minister. Not surprisingly, Dbeibah, with military backing from Ankara, ordered the use of military force twice in order to prevent Bashagha from entering Tripoli and taking over his job. Bashagha is no stranger to western Libya, hailing originally from Misrata, but he chose not to forcibly enter the capital in order to spare Libyan blood.

Meanwhile, Dbeibah claimed that his term officially expires on 22 June, 18 months after the UN-sponsored agreement, and refused to recognise the decision made by Libya’s parliament to appoint Bashagha. That deadline also expired, and the argument reiterated by Dbeibah since then is that he would not hand over his post except to an elected government.

Knowing the many difficulties that have come in the way of holing presidential elections, both political and legal, Dbeibah’s message was that he would continue to deepen divisions among Libyans and stay in office indefinitely. But the military support Turkey gave Dbeibah’s government has obviously not been free of charge.

Even before the UN managed to negotiate the agreement that led to the formation of Dbeibah’s government in February 2021, back in 2019 Ankara signed an invalid maritime border deal with former premier Fayez Al-Sarraj, granting Turkey access to a Greek economic zone in the Mediterranean for oil and gas exploration. The deal deepened existing tensions between Turkey and Greece, which has said that such energy deals infringe on Greek waters.

Neither the Al-Sarraj nor the Dbeibah government had the authority or mandate to strike any international deals or Memorandums of Understandings with Turkey that breach international laws only to maintain its military support, either through Turkish military units under the cover of “experts”, or mercenaries that Ankara shipped from Syria to fight alongside the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Tripoli governments.

This new and latest provocation by Dbeibah and Turkey must be met with a firm stand from the United Nations and all countries involved in the situation in Libya. Following talks between Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, on Sunday, both called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to “take a firm position regarding the illegitimacy of the outgoing Libyan government” given that the GNU stemmed from an agreement drafted and adopted by the UN.

“The UN should not remain silent regarding the full and honest implementation of what it has adopted and drafted,” Shoukri said. 

Other Libyan political forces and key world countries have also denounced the recent deals signed by Ankara and Dbeibah’s government. The European Union said the energy deals signed in this regard infringe on the sovereign rights of third states and is not in line with the UN Law of the Sea.

Greek FM Dendias accused Turkey of trying to “take advantage of the turbulent situation in Libya in order to further destabilise the Mediterranean region and establish a regional hegemony.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also seeking to benefit from current world chaos following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine to profit from rising world demand for oil and gas explorations.

In their joint news conference on Sunday, Shoukri and Dendias confirmed their commitment to the agreement for the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone signed by the two countries in 2020, and their determination and obligation to defend the sovereign rights of Egypt and Greece stated in that deal.

They also reiterated their support for efforts made to pave the way to holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya, by helping Libyan factions reach agreement on the steps needed to hold the vote. This certainly does not include signing controversial agreements with foreign nations that have no right to be in Libya in the first place.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 13 October, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.