NEW YORK (Dispatches) -- Egypt, Bahrain, the UAE and Greece warned in a joint statement that Libya’s approval of a 2019 maritime deal with Turkiye “threatens regional security” — a warning that underscores new divisions and a fresh push for alliances amid shifting geopolitical equations in the eastern Mediterranean.
Reading the statement to reporters at the UN in New York, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said the Memorandum “remains null and void, contrary to international law and cannot serve as a lawful basis for maritime delimitation or produce legal consequences for third States.” 
He said the four states feared the deal could open the door for arbitrary arrangements between two countries to erode established international legal principles.
Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, said the memorandum violates the sovereign rights of third states and breaches the Law of the Sea. 
He said the bloc holds a strategic interest in a stable and secure eastern Mediterranean, urging all countries to respect the sovereign rights of EU member states under EU and international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed the criticism the same day as lacking any legitimate basis.
Libya’s eastern-based parliament approved the accord last week, drawing swift condemnation from Greece and Cyprus. 
The agreement sets a maritime boundary between Turkiye and Libya that runs through waters around Greek islands, including Crete, and cuts across Athens’s claims to seabed gas and oil reserves.
Tripoli’s Turkish-backed government first signed off on the deal in 2019, and Ankara now has the backing of both rival Libyan governments for its Mediterranean claims. 
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry rejected the latest approval on October 21, saying the ratification “entails no legal consequences whatsoever for Egypt.”
Israel accused Ankara of “working to destabilize the east Mediterranean region.” Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and Israel cooperate to export Mediterranean natural gas to Europe.
The accord forms part of Turkiye’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine, a strategic maritime vision asserting Ankara’s claims to energy exploration and naval control across parts of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.