Interventions to tone down rhetoric
A temporary lull in Greek-Albanian diplomatic tensions has arisen ahead of the Greek elections after interventions from Washington, Berlin and Brussels.
Diplomatic tensions rose between Athens and Tirana after the arrest and imprisonment of the newly elected ethnic Greek mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, just two days before local elections in the neighboring country.
On Thursday, the secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Theocharis Lalakos, met with the detained mayor and was informed in detail about the current situation and the possible ways out of the impasse that has been created. In the coming period, contacts at bilateral level are expected to be intensified, initially on an official level, given the pending election in Greece.
Moreover, for the time being, the demolitions threatened by the Albanian authorities to start in the last days in Drimades and other villages in the wider area of Himare have been stopped.
On Thursday, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Bob Menendez, during the hearing of the undersecretary of state for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, questioned the expediency of arresting Beleri two days before the municipal elections, and whether this attitude on the part of Albania could create obstacles to the country’s European perspective, as Athens has clearly signaled.
