ATHENS — Greece moved Wednesday to reassure Arab allies over the strength of its friendship, following an improvement in ties with Israel after a landmark visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Improved Greek-Israeli ties were “for the good of Greece and all of the Middle East region… and do not exclude our close cooperation with the Arab world, and particularly our Palestinian friends,” Dimitris Droutsas, Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister, said in an interview with radio station Flash.
“Our rapprochement with Israel is not opposed to our traditional relationship of exceptional trust with the Arab world,” he said, adding that the improvement in ties had been discussed with “all our friends in the Arab world”.
Meetings on Monday and Tuesday with the visiting Israeli prime minister were “very useful and entirely successful because we achieved the fixed objectives: deepening of relations and cooperation with Israel,” Droutsas said.
“The cooling of relations between Turkey and Israel is not a reason for the political rapprochement with Israel,” Droutsas said, adding that Greece would look at all opportunities in foreign policy.
The minister said bilateral discussions had focused on security, military cooperation and economic cooperation. He also reiterated the importance of Israeli tourists to the Greek economy.
Netanyahu’s visit was the first by an Israeli head of government to Greece, which has traditionally been pro-Arab and did not recognise the Jewish state until 1991.
The move to increase security and strategic cooperation comes as diplomatic ties between Israel and neighbouring Turkey have soured in the wake of an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May that left nine Turks dead.