Fidan says Libya's rivals are ready to reunify as Ankara courts Egypt on sea borders

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said conditions are now in place to reunify Libya's rival eastern and western administrations and signaled that an announcement from Ankara is close. His remarks came days after Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a maritime boundary deal with Türkiye that it had refused to endorse for years, a vote that drew objections from Egypt, Greece, Israel and the European Union.

"We have now reached a stage where the conditions are ripe to permanently secure the reunification of the east and the west," Fidan said, according to Middle East Eye, which cited AFP. "God willing, you will soon hear very good news about this from Turkey."

One army for a divided country

Fidan framed military integration as the core of any settlement. "Both sides have military structures. These structures need to be brought together under a national army," he said. He described the fate of the military units now under separate control as one of the most important pillars of national unification, and added, "As Turkey, we are in a very constructive position on this matter."

The comments mark how far Ankara's position has traveled. During Libya's conflict, Türkiye gave strong backing to the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, but its relations with the eastern authorities, where military commander Khalifa Haftar holds sway, have since improved markedly.

The maritime deal returns

The clearest sign of that shift came on Tuesday, when the eastern parliament approved the maritime demarcation memorandum. Tripoli's internationally recognized government agreed the deal with Ankara in 2019, but Haftar's eastern administration withheld its approval for years, Reuters reported.

Neighbors reacted quickly. Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement that "Egypt reaffirms that this memorandum is null and void ... possesses no legal effect." Israel's foreign ministry said, "Regretfully, once again we see Türkiye working to destabilise the east Mediterranean region." Greece also criticized the vote, and the EU, including Italy and Greece, objected to the agreement this week. Greece, Egypt and Cyprus say the deal infringes their own maritime claims, while Türkiye rejects an overlapping exclusive economic zone agreement that Athens and Cairo signed in 2020.

Ankara is now trying to bring Cairo into the conversation. "Turkey, Italy, and Egypt can come together to discuss Egypt's concerns and Libya's concerns," Fidan said. Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Star TV that Türkiye is willing to go further. "We are ready to sign an agreement with Egypt on the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas," he said.

What it means: Fidan is presenting Türkiye as a broker between Libya's two camps rather than the patron of one, a role made possible by the eastern parliament's endorsement of the maritime memorandum. If Ankara can help merge the country's rival forces, it would secure the deal's political footing across Libya and strengthen its hand in the eastern Mediterranean, where sea borders shape energy exploration rights. The offer of talks with Egypt and Italy, and Guler's readiness to negotiate a separate boundary with Cairo, suggest Ankara wants to blunt Egyptian opposition before it hardens into an Athens-Cairo front. Fidan gave no timeline or details for the "very good news" he promised, so the substance of any reunification arrangement remains to be seen.