Greece and Cyprus collaborate on humanitarian sea corridor to Gaza

Greece is in daily contact with Cyprus regarding the initiative for a humanitarian sea corridor to Gaza, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgios Gerapetritis said.

In an interview with the Greek newspaper “Vima”, Gerapetritis dismissed that the two countries are competing as regards the issue of the proposal to open a sea humanitarian corridor to Gaza.

"I am in daily contact with Cypriot diplomacy and the Cypriot Foreign Minister," he said.

He explained that this is an initiative of Greece, Cyprus, and France, in coordination with international organizations, especially the United Nations, but also with Israel.

Referring to the technical difficulties of a humanitarian corridor to Gaza by sea, Gerapetritis said that special conditions are needed to ensure that there are safety guarantees to allow a ship to sail there.

“We are still in discussions so that we can ensure immediate, beneficial, and effective humanitarian assistance to the affected civilians in Gaza," he said.

Furthermore, the Greek Foreign Minister reiterated that the Cyprus issue is of primary importance for Greek foreign policy.

As he suggested it is a common understanding of the Cypriot government too that the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations could only be positive for the Cyprus issue," he said.

“Greece maintains its position on the solution of the Cyprus problem within the framework of the UN Security Council resolutions on a bizonal bicommunal federation. The dialogue should continue and the Turkish Cypriot side should join it. We will continue to raise the Cyprus problem both in international organizations and on every other occasion and we hope that we will have a much more productive discussion in the near future," Gerapetritis underlined.

In this context, he also referred to the upcoming Supreme Council meeting in Athens, which will be attended by the President and Ministers of the Republic of Cyprus and will discuss a number of issues, mainly of bilateral nature.