Greek Foreign Affairs Minister George Gerapetritis on Wednesday welcomed his counterpart from the transitional Syrian government, namely, Asaad al-Shaibani, the minister of foreign affairs and expatriates – a meeting that signals Athens’ attempt to rebuild its presence in the war-torn country.
Beyond the initial diplomatic pleasantries, Gerapetritis again reiterated Athens’ support and interest for the welfare of the Christian communities in strife-plagued Syria. He especially cited the need to keep a channel of communication between the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East and the interim Syrian government.
Critics have called the latter an entity comprised of the Islamist rebels and jihadis that fought against the previous Assad regime since 2011. Several military and terrorist attacks against ethnic and religious minorities have taken place in Syria since the former regime was summarily toppled last December.
In a nod to another issue that holds increased significance for Greece, Gerapetritis said Athens is keenly interested in states’ adherence to international saw, and especially the Law of the Sea and respect of neighboring countries’ sovereign rights.
The latter was a thinly veiled warning to the interim government in Damascus not to enter into any illegal agreement with Turkey over delimiting maritime regions between them based on Ankara’s unilateral positions and not based on UNCLOS provisions.
According to a Greek foreign ministry spokeswoman afterwards, the two ministers also discussed the provision by the Greek side of technology for institution-building and collaboration in the sector of combating irregular migration, with the convening of technical committees.
