The high-profile US ambassador to Greece on Thursday again took a position on a timely and sensitive matter taking up Athens’ attention, namely, the continued incarceration of two Greek servicemen that allegedly strayed into a border region on the Turkish side earlier this month.
Veteran diplomat Geoffrey Pyatt, in an interview posted on the News24/7 website, said Washington is not “washing its hands” of the affair, but quite the “opposite”. Nevertheless he avoided offering any projection on the course of Greek-Turkish relations. Asked about the fYRoM “name issue”, he merely said an “open window” is available for a solution.
At the same time, Pyatt used a football (soccer) metaphor, saying the US is not a referee and cannot pull out a yellow card for whatever political or diplomatic “foul” it sees.
Echoing previous statements by US envoys posted to Athens over past decades, he underlined Greece’s geo-strategic role in the region.
