Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is paying a two-day visit to Iran – the first western leader to do so since January 16 when sanctions against the country were officially lifted – for top-level talks with Ayiatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, and President Hassan Rouhani.
Mr Tsipras, who is the first Greek Prime Minister since 1992 to visit Iran (Konstantinos Mitsotakis was PM then), is heading a broad delegation of government officials and businessmen. His office has announced that talks with Iranian counterparts will focus mainly on issues such as energy, construction, water management, tourism (as Greece aims to be the first western country to welcome Iranian tourists, an official told the Cyprus News Agency), culture, agriculture-nutrition, pharmaceutical industry and general financial matters.
According to government sources in Athens, “following the empowerment of the strategic cooperation between Greece and Cyprus with Egypt and Israel, and in the context of a multidimensional initiative in energy and foreign policy, Greece is reflating its bilateral relations with Iran, a regional power with significant influence, who is now returning to the international forefront wishing to restore smooth relations with the West”.
CNA/CM/ΜΜ/2016
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY