Turkey’s signing of a hydrocarbon exploration deal with the Tripoli government has crippled its recent efforts to balance its policy in Libya and fanned the internal and external rivalries haunting the conflict-torn country.

Aquila Saleh, speaker of Libya’s eastern-based parliament, and Fathi Bashagha, head of an alternative government backed by the parliament, rejected the Oct. 3 deal as null and void, as did dozens of members of parliament and the High Council of State. In a letter to the United Nations, Saleh said the deal was not binding to the Libyan state because the mandate of the Tripoli-based interim government, headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, had expired. He warned the deal would destabilize the eastern Mediterranean, while Bashagha assailed it as a threat to peace and stability in Libya. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, for his part, painted a rosy picture. “All Libyan groups with which we have differed in the past strongly support this agreement,” he said.

In fact, the deal has provoked a stronger backlash compared to the reactions that followed the maritime delineation and military cooperation accords that Ankara signed with Tripoli in 2019. Bashagha, who aligned with Turkey at the time, has now joined the objectors.