Libya declares contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles
For Greece, the move by the Tripoli government does not fundamentally change what was already known
In the latest reshuffling of the pack in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Tripoli government in Libya has informed the United Nations of the Council of Ministers’ decision, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, to declare a 12 nautical mile territorial waters zone and then, to declare a contiguous zone extending 24 nautical miles northward, as permitted by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In actuality, the move is mainly aimed at the decree defining the western boundaries of Egypt’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which was another initiative of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government in order to cancel collateral problems created by the 2019 Turkey-Libya Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
All of the lines are drawn in accordance with Libyan perceptions, and so extend eastward to the Egyptian border. Of course, Cairo is likely to respond to this delimitation with a letter to the UN, specifically to the Directorate for Oceans and the Law of the Sea, where the Libyan decision is now submitted.
For Greece, the Tripoli government’s move does not substantially alter what was already known.
For example, the Gulf of Sidra on the northern coast of Libya is “closed” and acts as the starting point for baselines, which serve as the base of measurement for territorial waters, marine zones such as the boundary zone that was declared, and, of the EEZ.
It, of course, puts indirect pressure on Athens regarding the pending extension of the territorial waters to the south of Crete, which are adjacent to the Libyan Cyrenaica, which Ankara and Tripoli refused to accept in 2019, as the memorandum they signed with a skewed delimitation chose the novel view that Libya and Turkey have adjacent coasts.
It is recalled that Greece proceeded to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the maritime area of the Ionian Sea and the Ionian Islands up to Cape Tainaro in the Peloponnese about three years ago (presidential decree December 2020 and enacted by Parliament January 2021).
This decision, however, was not accompanied by the corresponding decision to declare a 24-nautical mile border zone in the Ionian Sea. The extension had not included Crete to any significant extent.
