Eastern Libya parliament approves 2019 maritime deal with Turkiye

The vote recognises Ankara’s maritime deal with Tripoli, ending Haftar’s 2020 boycott.Published On 20 Oct 202620 Oct 2026Libya’s eastern-based parliament, backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar, which runs as an alternative to the UN-recognised legislature in Tripoli, has approved a maritime deal with Turkiye, ending years of acrimony.Haftar’s Benghazi-based government said in a statement on Tuesday that his Tobruk-based House of Representatives voted unanimously to approve the 2019 memorandum of understanding signed between Turkiye and Libya’s UN-recognised former Government of National Accord (GNA) on the delimitation of maritime boundaries between the two countries in the Mediterranean Sea.Specialised committees presented a full and detailed explanation of the deal’s provisions, lawmaker Aisha al-Tabalqi told the Reuters news agency.The approval came six years after the same parliament ⁠in 2020 unanimously rejected the ratification of the deal and cut political ties with Ankara. Strategic shiftThe repealing of those moves on Tuesday consolidates a strategic shift in the works since last year, building on Ankara’s military-to-military contacts with Haftar’s self-styled Libya...