News in brief
The visit to the United States last week «reaffirmed the fact that Greece is a stable and reliable partner of the US in an extremely volatile region,» Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, addressing the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce at a formal dinner on Monday.
«I was explicit with US President Donald Trump about the Greek government’s red lines,» Mitsotakis said of how far Greece is willing to go in accepting conditionalities. «Greece will defend its sovereign rights by any appropriate means”, he added.
US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt described as extremely successful Mitsotakis’ visit to the US and said the upshot of the visit was the best possible.
In comments to reporters, Pyatt said Greece and the US have reached a point at which their interests converge to a great degree.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is expected to hold a telephone conversation today with his Iranian counterpart, Javid Zarif. The Iranian government appears to be disturbed by the statements made by the Prime Minister during his US visit, regarding the assassination of Suleimani.
Northern Aegean islands have called a general strike on January 22, protesting against government policy regarding the refugee crisis.
Yesterday, there was tension on the island of Chios, where deputy labor minister Notis Mitarakis attended the Municipal Council meeting, in order to analyze the government proposal of creating a new closed-type reception center on the island.
Tomorrow the deadline for paying road-tax stickers expires.
Α fire is underway in Korinthia in the Peloponese. The fire broke out at around 4 this morning at a recycling plant. According to the fire brigade it is currently under control, however smoke has covered the region around the plant.
Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement drafted at talks in Russia on Monday, the TASS news agency cited the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying.
And the weather forecast…
Partly cloudy in Attica today with rain expected tonight. Maximum temperature 15 degrees Celsius.
More news in brief tomorrow morning at 9.
