Egypt warns against 'harming country’s resources in Mediterranean'

No one will be allowed to come near Egypt’s natural resources in the Mediterranean, which lie within its territorial borders, the country’s parliament speaker warned yesterday.

“Egypt has full sovereignty over the natural resources located within its territorial waters of the Mediterranean,” Ali Abdel Al told lawmakers during a session that discussed the country’s plans to launch an oil and gas exploration programme in cooperation with international companies.

“Egypt won’t accept any encroachment act over its waters by any foreign country,” he stressed.

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Local media quoted the parliament’s head of Energy and Environment Committee, Talaat El-Sewedy, as saying that President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had recently signed seven oil exploration agreements with various international companies.

The warning comes amid Egypt’s high tensions with Turkey over the latter’s intervention in Libya. Turkey supports the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, while Egypt, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia, supports the eastern-based Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar.