Court Rules to Cancel Memorandum of Understanding Between Turkey and Al-Dabaiba in Libya
After a wide wave of international and local criticism, the Court of Appeal in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, ruled today, Monday, to cancel the memorandum of understanding signed at the end of 2022 between the outgoing government of Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba and Turkey in the field of hydrocarbon energy.
The memorandum, signed in October 2022, aimed to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the exploration, exploitation, production, manufacturing, and marketing of hydrocarbon resources (oil and gas) in Libya, and to achieve mutual benefits in this field.
At the time, the signing of the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons sparked opposition reactions to this step, by the President of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the legitimate government appointed by the Council, considering it “illegal” because the head of the al-Dabaiba government is not authorized to sign any agreements that entail long-term obligations on the Libyan state.
The agreement was also rejected by Egypt, Greece, and the European Union, which considered that this agreement violates the sovereign rights of other countries and does not comply with maritime law, and could undermine regional stability.
The decision of the Court of Appeal in Tripoli to cancel the agreement came after it accepted the appeal filed by 5 Libyan lawyers in December 2022, in which they requested the suspension of the implementation of this agreement because it “deprives the Libyan National Oil Corporation of its jurisdiction in the exclusive trade of oil and contains various mistranslated texts, causing serious damage that cannot be remedied when Turkey starts implementing the agreement, making it impossible to return the situation to what it was before it was signed”.
