Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, 21 October, rejected Tuesday’s ratification of the 2019 Libya–Turkey maritime memorandum. The House of Representatives in eastern Libya voted the text. Cairo says the memorandum is null and void and that the ratification has no legal effect for Egypt. These are statements, not a new maritime line drawn today.

The deal was signed in 2019 by the then internationally recognised government in Tripoli, under Fayez al-Sarraj, with Ankara. The rival eastern administration, under Khalifa Haftar, withheld approval for years. Greece, Egypt and Cyprus have opposed it from the start, as an infringement of their own claims in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Egyptian communique, reported by Reuters via The Straits Times, restates Cairo’s view that the text violates the law of the sea and the 1982 UNCLOS rules on exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf. Egypt reserves the right to protect its maritime rights. That is its position, not a ruling by an international court.

Israel also strongly condemned, on Wednesday, the eastern Libyan vote. The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem accuses Turkey of again destabilising the eastern Mediterranean. Greece criticised the move quickly. A day earlier, Giorgos Gerapetritis spoke by phone with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan rejected the criticism, in Brussels. He said the agreement is legally legitimate and that ratification is a formality, because for Ankara the deal was already in effect. “We know why some are reacting,” he said, without accepting an infringement of Egyptian rights.

Neither Cairo’s rejection, nor Jerusalem’s condemnation, nor Fidan’s remarks delimits a border today. They remain positions. This is not a new maritime line.

Image: Faris knight, Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, 13 September 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the building, not a photograph of the 21 October 2026 statement.

Sources consulted: Egypt rejects Libyan approval of maritime deal with Turkey - The Straits Times / Reuters; Egypt rejects Libya-Turkey maritime deal - Kathimerini, 21 October 2026.