FYROM name issue

Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas will very likely have a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with UN special envoy Matthew Nimetz, the mediator in the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said on Thursday.

He said the Greek side would seek a meeting if Nimetz had time for one, while he did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister George Papandreou and FYROM premier Nikola Gruevski if both were in New York at the same time and their schedules allowed.

Questioned about the statements of U.S. Ambassador to Skopje Philip T. Reeker during an interview on August 26, Delavekouras underlined that Greece "continues to invest in the process that is underway at the United Nations under the auspices of Matthew Nimetz and has, in fact, asked the American side to explain the thinking behind Reeker's statements".

He noted that such statements and publicity were not helpful, especially when made outside the framework of the negotiations process.

In an interview with the television station Alfa TV, Ambassador Reeker said that Washington did not consider that a resolution of the name issue "has to involve a change of the constitutional name or a change of the Macedonian Constitution." According to Reeker, the U.S. considered that "the two sides, Greece and Macedonia, need to agree on an international reference that can be used in place of FYROM."

Delavekouras noted on Thursday that Athens continued to have an "open" policy toward FYROM, in spite of occasions when FYROM's leadership made statements that did not help the goal of resolving the name issue.

"It must be clear that Greece is systematically continuing the effort for a solution and has proposed a framework for arriving at a solution," he stressed, adding that there was no "secret diplomacy" but a confidential process that was underway, supervised by the UN envoy.

"We are now waiting from some activity on the part of FYROM, whose leadership tends to barricade itself behind the same arguments we have been hearing for the past 20 years," he added.

On Middle East talks

Responding to questions about the talks beginning on Thursday in Washington between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Delavekouras described them as "a great opportunity".

"Greece welcomes them and makes an appeal to the people and governments of the region to not submit to the logic of violence and proceed to an honest, fair, lasting and viable solution of the problems in the area," he said.

The spokesman said that Greece fully supports the statement of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton concerning the murder of four Israeli civilians near Hebron and offered condolences to their families, while he also condemned an attack on Wednesday in which two people were injured.

"Greece, for many years now, supports the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state that will live beside Israel and its neighbours in a state of peace and security for these countries and their people. The murder of four Israeli subjects, yesterday's attack and every other expression of violence wherever it originates from, turns against every brave effort to achieve the goal of the two states," he said.

Greek position concerning Kosovo

Regarding Kosovo, the spokesman said that Greece desired a solution that was the product of consensus between the 27 EU member-states and Serbia and would support this position at the UN General Assembly.

He stressed that the Greek government was following a consistent policy and, through the Agenda 2014, had succeeded in reviving the debate on the European future of the western Balkans within the European Union.