Egypt's newly appointed ambassador to Greece, Murad Murad, has flatly rejected any Turkey-Egypt maritime deal and condem...

Egypt's newly appointed ambassador to Greece, Murad Murad, has flatly rejected any Turkey-Egypt maritime deal and condemned the Turkey-Libya memorandum in an interview published Sunday. Speaking as an experienced diplomat now stationed in Athens, he was unambiguous: "The Turks are trying to justify to us the agreement they made with the Libyans, but under no circumstances are we discussing a Turkey-Egypt agreement. We condemn the Turkey-Libya memorandum." The statement is a direct blow to Ankara's strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey has been courting Cairo with promises of additional maritime areas, part of which are already covered by the existing Greece-Egypt maritime delimitation agreement signed in 2020, while research rights in the wider area have been granted to American companies. Cairo has made clear it has no intention of participating in any process that could be read as even indirect recognition of the Turkey-Libya deal. On the question of extending the 2020 Greece-Egypt maritime agreement toward the Kastellorizo area, Murad said no date has been set yet, but added that political will has been publicly expressed by both sides and that this matters. He described the relationship between Greece and Egypt as one of friendship and sincere cooperation, and at a recent event marking the 53rd anniversary of Egypt's Armed Forces Day, he expressed hope that the two countries' strategic cooperation would be strengthened further. Egypt's caution toward Ankara also extends to Libya directly. The foreign ministers of Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia have jointly called for all foreign military forces to leave Libya so that elections can take place, a direct challenge to the Turkish military presence there. At the UN Security Council, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the memorandum and presented a map, arguing that Turkey and Libya had attempted to draw a sea border as if the Greek islands between their coasts simply did not exist. The exchange prompted four successive interventions by both delegations. Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, after meeting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, stated that maritime zones are not the subject of a ...