U.S. State Department’s Daily Briefing Covers Greece

Kirby's responses to being queried over Greece's eurozone status and its current predicament, can be read below.

Question: In the weekly Spiegel today published that U.S. is pushing to Chancellor Angela Merkel in order to Greece to stay in the euro. Do you have any comment on that?

Mr. Kirby: Well, look, on Greece, let me just restate what we've been saying here. Secretary Lew is sort of leading the coordination efforts here in the United States Government on what's happening with Greece, but essentially, this is between Greece and their creditors, and that's where the discussion lies. I won't speak for what Secretary Lew's views may be on this. We're watching this situation closely, just like everybody else, and what we want here at the State Department is a path forward that allows Greece to continue the necessary reforms it needs to return to a rate of growth and to deal with their debt in a sustainable way, and that's really where we are focused right now.

Okay, yeah.

Question: Once Greek was a major financial center, and so old, ancient, and Alexander the Great. He made money, today's economy billions and billions of dollars by hooks and crooks, but what he said when he left the world before he died, he opened both his hands, and he said, I'm not taking anything with me, and I'm leaving all this wealth for my future generation.

My question is here – you think this impact of Greece may follow other nations in Europe because President Obama's initiative to open the Swiss banks where all the black market money was going, including billions and billions from India, and now the banks are open, of course, thanks to the U.S. Treasury and the President Obama – you think this is the – because of this happening, all this?

Mr. Kirby: Well, you got me on Alexander the Great. I – (laughter) – I got a history degree from the University of South Florida, but I didn't learn that part of him. I guess I was – of course, my grades weren't all that good, so it could've – (laughter) – I might just have been asleep that day.

I mean, look, I think – I'm not going to get into a forensics on how Greece got to the point that it's in right now. We're watching this closely, and I think – again, and I won't speak for Secretary Lew or the Treasury Department, but I think it's safe to say that from a U.S. Government perspective, what we want to see is debt sustainability. We want to see Greece work this out with their creditors and – and I would just point you to what Greek leaders have said themselves, the prime minister specifically, that he sees the future of Greece in the Eurozone.

(Source: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2015/07/244759.htm#GREECE)