Greece expresses willingness to assume active role in future of Gaza

​​​​​​​By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Greece expressed a willingness Tuesday to assume an active role in the future of the Gaza Strip, and in the Middle East by large.

Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, commenting on the ceasefire agreement in Gaza that was brokered by Türkiye, the US, Qatar and Egypt, and the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit, argued that Greece is an honest interlocutor that maintains good relations with all actors in the region.

"Greece aspires to play an active role in Gaza and the Middle East on the 'day after,' and we are ready to contribute substantially to its implementation, always on the basis of international law and the decisions of the UN Security Council,” he said in a statement with visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian.

Particularly on the reconstruction of Gaza, he stressed that Greece intends to mobilize its private sector to improve the lives of Palestinians quickly and substantially.

Aghabekian said: "From the Palestinian side, we will do everything we can to move from the first to the second stage. At the end of this road, we see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”

But what Gaza needs now are necessities, she added.

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi convened a high-level summit Monday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, bringing together world leaders to garner international support for Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan.

In the plan's first phase, Hamas released 20 Israeli captives while Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. As part of the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops withdrew from densely populated areas, and humanitarian aid began arriving in Gaza. Later phases include demilitarizing Hamas, establishing a temporary technocratic governing mechanism, and deploying an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to ensure border security.