Erdogan’s gamble: Turkey bets on Libya to pursue East Med dominance
The prospect of Libya’s eastern-based parliament approving a crucial maritime deal with Turkey is growing as Ankara-Benghazi rapprochement intensifies.
ANKARA — Commander of the Libyan National Army’s ground forces, Saddam Hifter, paid his second visit to Turkey in four months this week, marking another step in Ankara’s move toward forging relations with the government based in eastern Libya.
The visit further raised the once-distant prospects of Libya’s eastern-based parliament ratifying the controversial maritime deal that Ankara signed with Tripoli in 2019, which redrew lines in the eastern Mediterranean, allowing Turkey to claim contested exclusive economic zones.
Saddam Hifter — son of Khalifa Hifter, the de facto ruler of eastern Libya — met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler on Wednesday on the sidelines of a defense fair in Istanbul. Hifter's visit follows the eastern-based Libyan parliament's decision last month to form a parliamentary committee to consider ratification of the maritime deal it formerly rejected. A potential ratification could bolster Ankara’s contested claims in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey's role in Libya
