Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias traveled to Saudi Arabia and its neighbors on a tour aimed at getting support against Turkish provocations in the Aegean and East Mediterranean, with the European Union offering only moral support for now.
Turkey and Libya signed an agreement dividing the seas between them, including claims on Greek waters near Rhodes and also Crete, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would send energy ships to hunt for oil and gas, setting off a furor in Athens.
With NATO, the defense alliance to which both belong refusing to intervene, the United Nations staying far away and the EU essentially powerless beyond issuing sanctions – it hasn’t yet – Greece is nearly isolated in its political battle, with fears it could become a shooting conflict.
Dendias met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “We have a common understanding that these memoranda create a problem in the broader region,” said Dendias. “We shall continue to monitor the situation and be in touch to coordinate initiatives,” the Greek minister said, reported John Psaropoulos in Al Jazeera and the Greek state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA.)
Dendias met with Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir and the Governor of the public investment fund, Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan before heading off to Abu Dhabi for meetings on Dec. 18.
“It’s the result of a proposal of (the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA) to create a new tripartite forum between Greece, Cyprus and the UAE,” a former diplomat told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. “It’s an attempt to answer the latest challenges in Greek-Turkish relations,” the source added.
Under SYRIZA, Greece and Cyprus moved closer to Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt to build alliances against Turkey’s growing threat.
“The UAE is our closest Arab ally after Egypt,” the former diplomat told Al Jazeera. “In addition to trade interests, Greece and the UAE have carried out joint military exercises.”
Turkey, which doesn’t recognize the UN’s Law of the Sea unless invoking it in its favor, sent the Libya agreement to the UN for review after the EU, asked by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for support, said it “infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states, does not comply with the Law of the Sea and cannot produce any legal consequences for third states,” the EU declaring it’s not binding on Greece.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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