ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday told Turkey to stop making “threats” against his country if talks on reducing tension in the eastern Mediterranean over maritime borders and gas exploration are to begin.
“Let threats go away so that the contacts can begin,” Mitsotakis said as he met a visiting senior member of the Chinese Communist party.
Tensions are running high over Turkey’s drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean which Greece and Cyprus say violate their sovereignty.
Turkey on August 10 deployed the Oruc Reis research vessel and an escorting flotilla of warships to the disputed waters between Cyprus and the Greek islands of Kastellorizo and Crete, and has since prolonged the mission three times.
Greece responded by staging naval exercises with several EU allies and the United Arab Emirates, not far from smaller ones Turkey conducted between Cyprus and Crete last week.
Mitsotakis on Friday said that Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias would later on Friday brief UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Turkey’s “lawless activity.”
Greece denied late Thursday that it had agreed to hold NATO-brokered talks with Turkey to de-escalate tensions over maritime borders and gas exploration rights.
“Published information claiming Greece and Turkey have agreed to hold so-called ‘technical talks’ on de-escalating tensions in the eastern Mediterranean do not correspond to reality,” Greece’s foreign ministry said.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had earlier said the two NATO allies had “agreed to enter into technical talks at NATO to establish mechanisms for military de-confliction to reduce the risk of incidents and accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas on Friday said Stoltenberg’s initiative “is very far from being termed an agreement to restart dialogue.”
The Greek foreign ministry stressed that “de-escalation will only take place with the immediate withdrawal of all Turkish vessels from the Greek continental shelf.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly lashed out at Greece, and also France, recently calling their respective leaders “greedy and incompetent” for challenging Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
“When the time comes to fight, we will not hesitate to make sacrifices,” Erdogan told newly-commissioned officers in Ankara on Sunday.
“The question is: when they stand against us in the Mediterranean, are they ready to make the same sacrifices?
“To our enemies, we say: Bring it on!”
France’s support for Greece is brewing a serious crisis for the NATO military alliance.
The European Union has been watching the escalating row with growing concern, repeatedly urging Turkey to stop the exploration activities and threatening to slap sanctions on Ankara if it refused to solve the dispute through dialogue.
EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell has said that unless Turkey can be engaged in talks, the bloc could develop a list of sanctions at a European Council on September 24 and 25.
Mitsotakis said Turkey was “undermining” international law and “endangering” regional security by seeking to “alter” geography.
Turkey must drop ‘threats’ for talks to begin: Greek PM
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Turkey must drop ‘threats’ for talks to begin: Greek PM
- ‘Let threats go away so that the contacts can begin’
- Greece denied late Thursday that it had agreed to hold NATO-brokered talks with Turkey to de-escalate tensions
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
- “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
- It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
