ATHENS – “Yesterday’s statement by the head of the Tripoli government regarding the signature of the memorandum between his government and Turkey is unfortunate, to say the least, as he is striving to compare two entirely different situations,” diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

“During last night’s speech, the head of Tripoli government Abdulhamid Dbeibah referred to a difference between Greece and Libya in terms of the delimitation of the EEZ between the two countries and afterwards he added that Libya will proceed with exploration based on the Turkish-Libyan memorandum and that his side will not concede Libya’s rights”.

The same sources noted that Dbeibah “is striving to compare two entirely different situations, one that is fully legal and one that is illegal, invalid and groundless”.

Specifically, the same sources pointed out that “until early 2011, the negotiations between Greece and Libya for the delimitation of the maritime zones were underway according to the International Law of the Sea and they had significantly progressed, while only one small difference remained to be bridged. The specific negotiations were interrupted due to the regime overthrow in Tripoli. Almost a decade later, in 2019, the then government of Tripoli and Turkey agreed a legal and political monstrosity which constituted a clear violation of the fundamental principles of the Law of the Sea, as it ignored the existence of Greek islands, such as Crete”.

The specific agreement, the diplomatic sources underlined, “was condemned by a large number of states, including all the EU member-states. Additionally, it was never ratified by the Libyan parliament. So, there is no comparison between the two cases and nobody is entitled to try to justify an illegal act by citing something entirely unrelated.”