JERUSALEM: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday accused Turkey of being a “threat to regional peace,” following wide-ranging talks in Jerusalem with his Israeli counterpart.
In his first foreign trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Mitsotakis condemned “Turkey’s aggressive behavior in the eastern Mediterranean.”
“We consider this activity to be a threat to regional peace and stability,” Mitsotakis told journalists after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Along with Cyprus, Israel and Greece signed an agreement in January on building an undersea pipeline to carry gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.
Ankara stands opposed to the deal and has sent ships to search for energy reserves off Cyprus, while last week the Turkish military conducted an air and naval exercise in the eastern Mediterranean.
“I have raised with the prime minister the recent incidents of illegal and provocative Turkish behavior at our sea and land borders,” the Greek premier said, standing alongside Netanyahu.
Mitsotakis also criticized the “destabilising effects that Turkey has played vis-a-vis its relationship with Libya.”
Ankara backs the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli, which for more than a year has battled an offensive by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Turkey has sent air defense systems and drones and Syrian rebel fighters in support of the GNA, reversing earlier defeats to Haftar’s forces.
The Turkish government additionally signed a controversial deal last year with the GNA that claimed gas-rich areas of the Mediterranean for Ankara, an agreement deemed “completely null and void” on Tuesday by Mitsotakis.
Focusing on two-way ties, Netanyahu held off from criticizing Turkey and was instead upbeat about Israel’s partnership with Athens.
“We have common interests, we face common challenges, we have extraordinary common opportunities,” he said.
The Greek delegation is the largest to visit Jerusalem in months, with Mitsotakis bringing six ministers including the defense, energy and tourism ministers.
Netanyahu said his government aims to allow Israelis to travel to Greece and Cyprus from August 1, if coronavirus infection rates remain low.
Greece started welcoming tourists from around 30 countries on Monday, following closures due to the pandemic, while Israel is yet to lift its ban on visitors imposed in March.
According to Israeli officials, the government is counting on Greece and other “friendly” countries to support it at the EU level.
The European Union is currently weighing retaliatory measures as Israel plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a step included in a US peace initiative.
The Greek delegation will not travel to the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority officials, who have categorically rejected Washington’s plan.
But in an interview published by Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, Mitsotakis said he would speak to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas “once I return to Athens.”
“We want to see the Israelis and the Palestinians living alongside one another in peace and security,” he said.
More than 450,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, deemed illegal under international law, alongside 2.7 million Palestinians.
The Israeli government says it could start the process of annexing the settlements and the Jordan Valley from July 1, a move which the UN has warned may spark violence.
Greek PM in Israel says Turkey a ‘threat to regional peace’
https://arab.news/8bvcq
Greek PM in Israel says Turkey a ‘threat to regional peace’
- Mitsotakis condemned ‘Turkey’s aggressive behavior in the eastern Mediterranean’
- Netanyahu held off from criticizing Turkey and was instead upbeat about Israel’s partnership with Athens
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
