MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) - Moscow hopes that Turkey and the Libyan Government of National Accord will abstain from any steps, which may exacerbate the situation in Libya and in the Mediterranean.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Tuesday commented thus on the memorandums on the delimitation of the maritime zones and on security cooperation signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and head of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez al-Sarraj in Istanbul on November 27.
The commentary was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website.
One will be able to give a legal assessment of these documents only after studying their content, which has not been disclosed yet, Zakharova said.
"Meanwhile, we highlighted quite an acute reaction to their signing from a number of Mediterranean littoral states, above all, Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt. In spite of the Turkish Foreign Ministry's official statement that the Turkish-Libyan memorandum on the delimitation of the maritime zones does not contravene international rules, Athens and Nicosia accused Ankara of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and infringing their interests," she said.
"As for the memorandum on security cooperation, its appearance provided grounds for allegations about Turkey's attempts to legalize its military support to the government in Tripoli in its standoff with the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar, specifically by committing a blatant violation of the weapons embargo," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
She also recalled Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya Ghassan Salame's recent suggestion that the document may foil the preparations to an international meeting on the problems of the Libyan settlement in Berlin scheduled for the end of this year. Meanwhile, many questions are arising precisely to al-Sarraj.
"We hope that the parties, which signed the above-mentioned memorandums, will display the political common sense and refrain from any steps, which may even more escalate the already complicated situation in Libya and in the Mediterranean as a whole," Zakharova said.