Egypt reopens its embassy building in Libya's capital Tripoli after 12 years
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reopened the embassy building in Tripoli, closed since 2014, on Saturday. During the visit he discussed trade, energy and the disputed Turkey-Libya maritime boundary.
Egypt reopened its embassy building in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Saturday, with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty visiting for talks on trade, energy and a disputed maritime boundary in the eastern Mediterranean. Libya's acting foreign minister, Taher al-Baour, attended the ceremony.
Egypt shut the building in January 2014 after gunmen kidnapped five embassy staff. Its diplomatic mission resumed work in Tripoli in May 2021. Cairo has long supported Khalifa Haftar, the military commander whose forces dominate eastern Libya, where a rival government is based.
Trade and energy
In Tripoli, Abdelatty met Abdulhamid Dbeibah, prime minister of Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Unity. They discussed ways of easing trade. According to Egypt's foreign ministry, Dbeibah praised the part Egyptian companies and workers have played in rebuilding Libya.
Abdelatty also met Libya's acting oil minister at the reopened embassy. He urged faster progress on gas pipelines between the two countries and on plans to refine Libyan crude in Egypt for export. The Libyan minister said he would travel to Cairo for more talks, Libya's state news agency reported on Sunday.
The maritime dispute
During his talks with Dbeibah, Abdelatty raised Egypt's objections to a 2019 agreement between Turkey and Libya's then government in Tripoli. He said Egypt's concerns should be considered when maritime boundaries are drawn, according to his ministry. Dbeibah told Egyptian broadcaster Al-Qahera News that officials from both countries would discuss the maps and their respective claims at their next meeting.
The agreement sets a boundary between Turkish and Libyan maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean, where several countries claim rights to explore for oil and gas. Greece says it ignores the rights of Greek islands, including Crete. Egypt and Cyprus also oppose the deal.
Libya's eastern-based parliament ratified the agreement on 20 October after years of opposing it. The next day the EU said the deal infringed on other countries' rights and could have no legal effect on them. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan defended it as "an entirely legitimate agreement, both from a legal and a political perspective".
