for infractions. anchor: north korea has fired two more ballistic missiles. >> these members have gone out of their way to justify and

block every attempt to updating the sanctions regime. anchor: cutting output and calling it a shortsighted move. reporter: the reaction is quietly contained fury and has been described by the national security advisor as shortsighted. they're making clear saudi arabia and russia are a part of russia -- opec.

it rings loudly in the united states. anchor: vladimir putin inside into law. putin says they will help stabilize. anchor: a rescue operation has been launched in greece. dozens have been rescued so far. the news continues after inside story. anchor: it's a deal expected to

muddy the waters in the eastern mediterranean. a deal for energy exploration but some are against it. what will this mean for regional security? this is inside story. welcome to the program. diplomatic tensions are rising again in the eastern mediterranean sparked by disputes about oil and gas rights. libya signed a deal on monday the sparked angry reactions. the libyan rival rejected the deal.

first, this from tripoli. reporter: a senior turkish delegation visits tripoli. they sign a deal with the internationally recognized government to cooperate, explore and drill for gas. >> it is vital to confirm the importance of the agreement signed today. >> libya has africa's largest reserves of crude oil but years of conflict and divisions have devastated production. production slumping to 200,000 barrels a day.

>> the hydrocarbon agreement aims to reach a win-win, drilling for both turkish and libyan countries. reporter: it has angered some and reignited disputes over a maritime agreement signed by turkey and libya in 2019. the agreement does not have the authority. >> it's proper for egypt to stop interfering.

reporter: details have not been published. such actions could undermine regional stability and with tensions rising,. anchor: let's take a look. as mentioned libya signed an agreement in 2019 establishing an exclusive economic zone in the mediterranean. drilling in the waters resulted in sanctions.

that's bring in our guests. in tripoli, a political analyst and former senior advisor to the negotiating team, an advisory body. joining us is a lecturer and former u.s. ambassador. a warm welcome to all of you. what does this agreement mean for libya? >> what we can say is it builds on the previous agreements and

further details are needed but i think it's a matter between turkey and libya. if others want to participate, they can negotiate without consulting with anybody. so to the turks and libyans. everyone needs to sit down and negotiate this issue. anchor: matthew, the turkish foreign minister says this is a win-win. is it? >> certainly yes. libya will get assistance. libya is a powerhouse when it comes to oil and gas production

onshore. for turkey, it's returning to the eastern mediterranean and trying to take advantage of the exclusive economic zone for libya. little bit less confrontational and in the summer of 2020, when turkey accompanied naval vessels that ended a minor collision, from that perspective it's a win as well. anchor: the greek government has raiseded objections still. what is that based on? >> we do not know that much about the recent agreement but we know a lot about the agreement of 2019, this was

considered illegal by both greece and the european union because it infringed on the sovereign rights of other states. this is a reality we have to take into account and even if we are not experts on international law, we can see the agreement to prods the big islands from the right to this lease agreements are considered null and void from a european perspective. anchor: you touched on this earlier about the objections to this particular deal and something needs to be worked out, but there is a sense this deal will add to the ongoing tensions in the regions with the

fact that there is, libya is not a completely stable country given the situation, what do you say to that? >> nobody can take the instability of libya or tough time libya is going through as an excuse to do what they want and prevent libya doing from what it needs to do. just because -- the greeks and egyptians are doing that in the eastern mediterranean with the help of the israelis and they are signing agreements and thinking about pipelines. they are everybody else. libya cannot sit and watch just

because they greeks and european union's objected, that does not make it so, the europeans and greeks complained about a lot of stuff that turned out to be legal. here's what i'm saying. libya is a sovereign country. it's a member of the united nations, arab league and a sovereign state. it can do what it needs to do if the government gets recognized internationally, it's recognized. the only thing they can do is sit together and try to work this thing out. the laws of the high seas, this is not set in stone and there are a lot of interpretations so

they can sit together and talk about it. trying to take advantage of libya is not correct. anchor: is there a basis for some sort of compromise? >> there is no hope or a breakthrough for the start of negotiations. the continental -- this needs to be taken into account. if we are looking at responses by major european capitals, what we say, if viewers are looking at the map, it's bizarre to talk about an agreement that the

islands -- we are all hopeful for a dialogue. taking into account the agreement ignores international law, it's impossible to bring parties to the negotiating table. anchor: as a former u.s. ambassador, the united states has an interest in seeing parties come to an agreement. my question is, do you feel this could add to tensions in the region? >> tensions are quite high with turkey and greece, each side choosing the other of violations of international law.

the cyprus question is that the core of the current dispute. continental shelves, islands, turkey has maintained a position that the islands are not entitled to the continental shelf. most think they are entitled. turkey has never joined the convention. there is a provision that two states on the coastline, if they are neighbors, inevitably there are conflicts on how far exclusive economic zones extend, and they need to sit down at the negotiating table and come up

with an agreement that takes vital interests into account. if you want to make a move on cyprus, we will make a move to block the pop line -- pipeline from israel, cyprus. we are in a tit-for-tat situation. united states would much prefer there to be negotiations. anchor: how do you prevent a tit-for-tat situation? >> certainly there is a potential for an extended conflict.

he is suggesting to scrap the turkish and libyan agreement and then sit down. the middle east monitor quoting greek officials saying they are no drilling. i think everybody should look into this as an opportunity to take care of our own interests. that's the way to do it.

libyan ambassador giving him 48 hours to leave the country. that ambassador is now the president of libya. anchor: if turkey goes ahead with this and starts drilling in these areas, how do you expect the greek government will react? >> this depends where turkey will start drilling operations. the problem is we have zones that overlap. they intersect. if turkey plans to drill in the memorandum of understanding than

there will be a serious problem. to defend sovereign rights. however, there is always an opportunity for dialogue despite the problems. there are talks between greece and turkey which are ongoing. greece recognizes the limitation is the sole difference between the two. the real problem right now is military force. not at gunpoint.

anchor: what do you say to this? how does this fit into the middle east policy? >> the perspective is that they believe they are playing defense rather than offense. what do i mean? turkey believes that the escalated after the naval collision. since then, turkey has not sent any exploration ships into the mediterranean. president order one thought he and the prime minister had reached a gentlemen's agreement

thereby when the prime minister went to washington dc in may, the greek prime minister would not lobby against a pending agreement for turkey and it turns out while the prime minister was there, it got him really angry, he made belligerent statements. since then, some islands are not supposed to have military equipment. erdogan is countered with threatening statements about a dangerous escalatory latter in

terms of rhetoric. it's time for someone to step in as an arbiter. it's difficult for the european union to be neutral, there is a concept among member states. it is tough for the eu to broker this one. germany needs to step in. anchor: this is something george mentioned earlier. is there a basis for some sort of international mediation via the eu ruf to resolve this? >> the eu is out. the eu is in cahoots with the greeks. they cannot be impartial.

maybe turkey can do something about that. end of year, we need to explore oil and gas and get things moving. get the perspective and the increase in production is much-needed and we can't afford the tit-for-tat. we have enough problems of our

own. anchor: had you see the steel benefiting? >> the oil and gas sector has been neglected for a long time. infrastructure is basically deteriorating and so on. we need to increase spending. the income is very low compared to the past. there are markets for the and we need the investments. anchor: have you see this

playing out, the longer this goes on? >> the european union can't do it alone. there is a key pillar so these things need to be taken into account. this is how this family is working. it will join the meeting of the european cooperation. he wants to cooperate. within this contact, the

european union can push forward greece, israel and other sides like egypt, jordan, italy and france. it can be there. this is -- anchor: thank you for all three of you. thank you for being on inside story. thank you you as always for watching. go to our website. for further discussion, facebook.com.

bye for now.

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