Greece leads pushback against Turkey and Libya's farcical maritime "deal"
“Geography cannot be rewritten … and sovereign rights cannot be erased by drawing arbitrary lines on a map.” Those were Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis words at the UN Security Council this week, as he held up a map showing Turkey and Libya’s “illegal” and “arbitrary” maritime deal.
This agreement is back in the headlines these days after Libya’s House of Representatives dropped its longstanding opposition to the deal and ratified it on October 20th. The international response was swift, with Greece, the EU, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE all condemning it. Even the State Department, which originally offered a weak and ambiguous response, altered its stance and reaffirmed its original 2019 position that the deal was “unhelpful” and “provocative.”
While diplomatic pressure is unlikely to force Turkey to the table, Greece is making moves as reports indicate it is preparing to sit down with Egypt to discuss extending their Exclusive Economic Zone eastwards towards Cyprus. This is potentially another blow to Turkey’s Blue Homeland, as Ankara was hoping to entice Egypt into signing a separate maritime boundary agreement at the expense of Greece and Cyprus.
These developments are taking place as the US is distracted by Iran, by the upcoming midterms, and by the war in Ukraine. President Trump’s moves this month, especially vis-a-vis Ukraine and Russia, turned many heads in Washington and in Europe, and his decision to exempt Russia from new sanctions passed by Congress and cut a deal to purchase Russian diesel left many wondering what this means for American energy policy, and whether the US can lead through a transactional foreign policy.
John Psaropoulos, Amberin Zaman, and Max Bergmann join me this week as we break down all of these issues.
A little more info on our guests:
John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in southeast Europe, and publisher of Hellenica on Substack.
Amberin Zaman is Al-Monitor's chief correspondent who covers major stories on the Middle East and North Africa.
Max Bergmann is the director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program and the Stuart Center in Euro-Atlantic and Northern European Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
You can support The Greek Current by joining HALC as a member here.