Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egypt, 4 States Urge UN Not to Register Turkey's Maritime Deal with Libya


Mon 13 Jul 2020 | 08:44 PM
Hassan El-Khawaga

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Greece, and Cyprus called on the United Nations not to register the maritime boundaries deal signed between Turkey and Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of the National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj, according to a well-placed source at UN.

The five countries sent a note verbale to Secretariat of the United Nations, stressing that the deal is illegal and can not be registered at UN, according to MENA news agency.

On November 27, 2019, Turkey and GNA head inked a memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea.

The note verbale reviewed the legal framework that regulates the procedures of registering the international conventions at the UN.

Any international convention or agreement has to be in force to be registered at the UN Secretariat, a matter which does not apply to the signed MoU, especially that Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, in his letter to the UN, refused the agreement.

The note verbale also stressed the importance of taking into account Skhirat Agreement outcomes, mentioning that signing an agreement between Turkey and Sarraj violates the agreement provisions.

It also highlighted that the deal violates the rights of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the UN and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as well.

Therefore, the Turkish deal is illegal and should not be registered to maintain stability and security in the Mediterranean region.