Blinken in Greece after Istanbul and before a new tour in the Middle East
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, traveling on a new tour in the Middle East, met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Crete on Saturday, a few hours after a long meeting in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The meeting between the two men took place in Chania, one of the main cities of the Greek island of Crete, in the private residence of the head of the Greek government.
Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis assured on Saturday that it was only a matter of time before Greece joined the US F-35 fighter jet program, as Athens had long been waiting for their supplies.
“The modernization of the armed forces is an important issue,” underlined the head of Greek diplomacy on the Skai channel.
In Istanbul, the meeting between MM Blinken and Erdogan, in one of the presidential residences on the Bosphorus, lasted more than 75 minutes, according to American diplomatic sources, after an initial meeting between Blinken and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.
The latter, according to a diplomatic source, called for “an immediate ceasefire” in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Erdogan, who denounces US support for Israel and describes the latter as a “terrorist” state, had avoided Blinken’s previous visit to Ankara in November.
The talks with the Turkish president focused on the situation in Gaza and Sweden’s entry into NATO, a State Department press release said.
Blinken insisted to his guest on “the need to prevent the expansion of the conflict, to increase humanitarian aid, to reduce the number of civilian casualties, to work towards lasting regional peace and to move forward towards the creation of a Palestinian state .
Furthermore, according to the short press release, the American official called for “the conclusion of Sweden’s accession process to NATO”, which still lacks the agreement of Turkey and Hungary.
After this brief stop in Crete, Blinken must travel to Jordan, then Israel, the occupied West Bank and other countries in the region to try to avoid a regional conflagration, three months after the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Blinken wants to call on his interlocutors to use their communication channels with Iran to make clear that the United States is not seeking escalation, but will defend its interests when attacked, according to an American official. condition of anonymity.
In Syria and Iraq, attacks on American military bases have increased in recent weeks and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, are intensifying attacks in the Red Sea against commercial ships, to hinder international maritime traffic in “support” of the Palestinians .
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Erdogan is one of Israel’s most vocal critics, who has vowed to “destroy” Hamas in retaliation for the unprecedented attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamic movement on Israeli soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have caused 22,600 deaths, mostly civilians.
As for Sweden’s NATO membership, the other reason for Antony Blinken’s Turkish step, the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee took a first step at the end of December. But Parliament still has to approve the protocol by majority to end twenty months of suspension.
Ankara criticizes Stockholm for its alleged leniency towards Kurdish militants taking refuge on its territory and uses its blocking power to obtain the delivery of 40 American F-16 fighter planes and modernization kits for those it already has.
The American government is not hostile to the sale of the F-16s but Congress has so far opposed it, according to a State Department source, making it conditional on Sweden’s entry into NATO.
Due to recurring tensions between Turkey and Greece, also a NATO member, Athens is concerned about these deliveries, even though relations between these two neighbors have recently warmed.
Hence Blinken’s brief stop on Saturday evening in Crete to reassure the allies.
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2024-01-06 17:00:43
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