Libya’s Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah signed two deals with Turkey’s defense minister on Tuesday, building on a 2019 agreement that angered European nations. The 2019 deal had seen Turkey claim large and potentially gas-rich areas of the eastern Mediterranean, angering Greece, France, and the European Union. Another deal signed by Dbeibah on Tuesday aims to “boost the capacity of Libya’s air force using Turkish expertise,” read the statement, accompanied by pictures of him with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. The latest deals come three weeks after Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu signed a deal in Tripoli allowing for oil and gas exploration in Libya’s Mediterranean waters. That was also built on the 2019 deal, which demarcated the countries’ shared maritime borders but sparked anger in Greece and Cyprus.

Source: Libya Today October 26, 2022 03:07 UTC