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Eying Turkey, Greece Sidles Up To Israel

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (L) with Israeli peer Benjamin Netanyahu
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (L) with Israeli peer Benjamin Netanyahu

As Israel and Turkey are repairing relations torn by the killing of Turks in 2010 by Israeli commandos trying to stop an aid ship from reaching the Palestinian territories, Greece is trying to keep its ties tight with Tel Aviv, even as interest grows in exploiting potential oil and gas reserves in the Aegean near Cyprus.
Spiros Lambridis, Athens’s new envoy to Israel, said that “regardless of what Israel does with Turkey, we have a strategic relationship that is autonomous and has nothing to do with Turkey,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Lambridis said the new Israeli-Turkish rapprochement could help regional stability and lessen tensions in the area between Southeast Europe, Asia and the Middle East. “The more tranquility in the region, the better,” he said.
Israel drew close to Greece, Turkey’s ancient rival, after the 2010 incident tore Turkey’s relations with Tel Aviv.  Greece and Israel for three years have enjoyed more co-operation in economic, tourist, political and military affairs as did Cyprus with Israel.
Israel and Greece are scheduled to hold their first government-to-government meeting in a few months in Athens, a meeting the ambassador said is a sign the countries want a continued “fruitful bilateral relationship.”
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on March 30 with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the day after he called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apologize for operational errors that might have led to the loss of life in the 2010 incident.
Earlier in March, Samaras called Netanyahu and arranged for the two countries to hold a High-Level Cooperation Council meeting soon and to say that Greece wants Turkey and Israel to repair strained relations.
Lambridis said his assumption was that Netanyahu and Samaras discussed the situation with Turkey, and that the message was that Greek-Israeli ties would continue to grow and develop.
Meanwhile, Israel also took efforts this week to reassure Cyprus that a closer relationship with Ankara would not come at the expense of Jerusalem’s ties with Nicosia.
The Cyprus Mail quoted Israeli Deputy Ambassador Shani Cooper as saying that the “the normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel was an important bilateral step but it will not affect any multilateral, trilateral or bilateral relations between Israel and other countries. Israel will maintain its close relations with Cyprus, and continue strengthening them as we have done the last few years.”

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