The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Hakan Fidan discussed Türkiye-Libya relations with the head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, sources said Tuesday.
Fidan’s meeting followed his recent visit to Sudan, where he met with Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, commander in chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces on Monday.
Fidan’s visit also followed last week’s announcement by a Libyan court, which suspended the maritime deal with Türkiye.
The agreement had included scope for oil and gas exploitation in waters that Ankara and Tripoli have declared as their own, but which are also in part claimed by Egypt and Greece.
The deal had spurred rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean and played into a political standoff in Libya between the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, in western Libya, and an eastern-based parliament that rejects its legitimacy.
Tripoli’s appeals court, which issued Monday’s decision, left room for the GNU to itself appeal the ruling, the source said, without giving further details regarding the reasons for the decision.
Last year, Türkiye and Libya signed a series of preliminary economic agreements that included potential energy exploration in maritime areas.
The agreements would allow for oil and gas exploration in Libyan waters and came three years after the two countries signed a maritime border deal.
In November 2019, Türkiye and Libya signed a maritime delimitation deal that provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states. Greek government attempts to appropriate huge parts of Libya’s continental shelf, when a political crisis hit the North African country in 2011, were averted.
