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Egypt’s ambassador to Greece, Murad Murad, said Cairo is not discussing a maritime boundary agreement with Türkiye and condemned the 2019 Türkiye-Libya memorandum, days after Ankara said a deal could give Egypt more than 15,000 square kilometers of additional maritime area.
"The Turks are trying to justify to us the agreement they made with the Libyans, but in no way are we discussing a Turkish-Egyptian agreement. We condemn the Turkish-Libyan memorandum," Murad told Greek newspaper Kyriakatiki Apogevmatini, Parapolitika reported.
Murad, newly appointed to Athens, said Greece and Egypt are linked by "friendship and sincere cooperation."
Türkiye's National Defense Ministry said last week it was "ready to sign an Agreement on the Delimitation of Maritime Jurisdiction Areas with Egypt in line with mutual interests."
"It is assessed that if Egypt signs such an agreement with our country, it would gain more than 15,000 square kilometers (5,792 square miles) of additional maritime jurisdiction compared to a potential agreement it could conclude with Greece," the ministry said.
The ministry also hailed the Libyan House of Representatives' (HoR) Oct. 20 approval of the 2019 memorandum as "an important development supporting our country’s approach based on international law and the principles of equity."
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Asked about resuming talks to extend the 2020 Greece-Egypt delimitation toward the Kastellorizo (Meis) area, Murad said: "We do not yet have a date, but the political will was publicly expressed, and that is important."
The remarks follow a clash at the U.N. Security Council last week, where Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the Türkiye-Libya memorandum void, with Türkiye’s U.N. envoy Ahmet Yildiz responding that "this Council is not a maritime delimitation court."
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