NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The president of Cyprus said Friday that he’s in touch with the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Greece and Lebanon to formulate joint diplomatic action aimed at countering a Turkey-Libya maritime border deal that they say flouts international law and ratchets up regional tensions. Turkey says its deal with Libya’s U.N.-recognized government grants it economic rights to a large swath of the eastern Mediterranean. But other countries in the region, including Greece and Cyprus, say the deal unlawfully truncates their own economic zones and impedes their rights to offshore exploration for hydrocarbons. One such project Erdogan may have been alluding to is an envisioned gas pipeline conveying gas from Israeli and Cypriot offshore deposits to mainland Europe via Greece. Turkey doesn’t recognize EU-member Cyprus as a state and claims 44 percent of its exclusive economic zone.

Source: Libya Today December 20, 2019 18:45 UTC