E. Libya forces release ship with Turkish crew amid maritime border deal tensions – report

Libya’s forces based in the country’s east said on Monday they have released a vessel with Turkish crew members seized over the weekend. The development comes amid heightened tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over a contentious maritime border deal involving the rival Tripoli-based government and Ankara.

Ahmed al-Mosmari, spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army, said they found no weapons on the vessel that was flying a Grenada flag and which was carrying a shipment of flour from Malta to the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

The vessel was seized “because it entered Libya’s territorial waters without prior permission,” AP quoted the spokesman as saying. The LNA, led by military commander Khalifa Haftar, seized the vessel on Saturday and took it into a Libyan port under its control for inspection.

Ankara and Libya’s UN-supported government based in the capital Tripoli signed maritime and security agreements last month, drawing international outrage and concern from several Mediterranean countries.