Greek PM Mitsotakis in Israel to meet with Netanyahu

The Prime Minister will return to Athens in the afternoon.

The Greek government is analyzing every scenario for developments in the Middle East and is determined to present Greece as a "force for solutions". The government has specific priorities: the active participation of Greece in the efforts to de-escalate the crisis, the promotion of humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza and the categorical condemnation of all forms of violence and terrorism.

Gathering steam

The prime minister has already expressed concerns about the ground operation, insisting on recognizing Israel's right to self-defense "but always and only in accordance with international law." Any uncontrolled conflict worries the Greek government in terms of the domino effects it would bring about, forcing the government into multi-level readjustments. "I hope we don't have to refer to our fiscal reserves" Kyriakos Mitsotakis said indicatively a few days ago regarding the risk of serious effects on energy costs.

At the same time, the possibility of an "explosion" of refugee flows from the side of Egypt deeply worries Athens. "Egypt and Jordan bear a great burden and are rightly very concerned about the possibility of forced displacement of the residents of Gaza," Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday, conveying a message of support to Egyptian President Fatah al-Sisi and King Abdallah II of Jordan, with which he also discussed on the sidelines of the peace conference. It was a meeting which, however, ended without even a joint communique, but only with an announcement from the Egyptian presidency.

From the beginning, the government has spoken of increased attention to guarding the borders. "Anyone who comes to Greece is recorded. We have achieved the best performance in registrations, identifications with fingerprints, with a check on the databases of Europol, Interpol, they are not left unregistered" said the Minister of Immigration Dimitris Keridis.

According to him, there are no indications of an organized movement of attacks by Islamist fanatics in Europe, while national intelligence agency EYP and Greek police are under steam and the prime minister is asking for coordination of the European security services. "We have isolated incidents of "lone wolves" that are frightening, mainly from second and third generation immigrants (…) It does not concern new arrivals but mainly people who already live in Europe and decide to do all these heinous things," noted Keridis.