Bank closures ‘will not last long,’ Tsipras says

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Greeks on Thursday the problems they face because of closed banks "will not last long," saying he expected to clinch a new aid deal with creditors 48 hours after a Sunday referendum.

Tsipras told ANT1 television that scenes in Greece – queues at cash machines and a crush of elderly Greeks waiting hours for pensions – were "embarrassing," but he blamed Greece’s eurozone partners that forced the European Central Bank to freeze vital funding to the banks. [Reuters]