Libyan PM thanks Turkey for support

The head of Libya’s new interim government, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday for talks aimed at boosting cooperation between their nations.

Turkish media reports said the two countries will aim to increase cooperation in energy and health and will also the discuss the return of Turkish companies to complete stalled projects in the oil-rich North African nation.

Dbeibah thanked Turkey for its support and its pledge to support to Libya's unity and reconstruction.

Dbeibah and Erdogan also reaffirmed their commitment to a controversial maritime demarcation agreement that has angered Greece and Cyprus.

Turkey signed an agreement with the Tripoli-based government in 2019 to delineate the maritime boundaries between the two countries.

Both Greece and Cyprus have denounced the agreement, which they said amounts to a serious breach of international law in disregard of the rights of other eastern Mediterranean countries.

Dbeibah, who was paying his first official visit to Ankara, has been trying to strike a balance between Turkey and Greece, following Athens' concerns over the maritime deal.

Dbeibah has said his government is willing to establish a joint Libyan-Greek committee to resume negotiations to set the sea boundary between the two countries and demarcate an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights.

Libya's interim government, which took power last month, is meant to bring together a country that has been torn apart by civil war for nearly a decade. It is also aims to steer through a general election on Dec. 24.

Turkey has been closely involved in Libya, backing the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli that controlled the west, against the Libyan National Army (LNA), based in Benghazi that controlled the east.

Turkey sent military supplies and fighters to Libya, helping to tilt the balance of power in favour of the Tripoli government.

Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed.