Political sources in Tel Aviv revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who arrives in Israel on Tuesday, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who will visit Israel next week, to work to scale down the EU stance against annexation plans for portions of the West Bank.
Mitsotakis will travel to Israel on Tuesday for wide-ranging talks covering energy and his counterpart’s controversial annexation plans. He will lead the largest high-level delegation to Israel since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with six ministers in tow including defense and tourism.
Anastasiades will lead a delegation with three ministers.
Netanyahu will seek advantage of the two visits to have Athens and Nicosia support Israel in the face of European threats of sanctions over annexation plans.
Israel, Greece and Cyprus in January signed the EastMed deal for a huge pipeline to ship gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe, despite objections from Turkey.
The European Union is weighing retaliatory measures as a response to Israeli annexation, which could begin from July 1, although sanctions would require the agreement of all 27 member states.
Israel is counting on European allies such as Austria and Hungary — who last month refused to back a resolution against annexation — and “friendly” countries such as Greece and Cyprus to tone down the EU response.
“Our request to Greece is to support us at the EU level, to make sure the European Union has sensible language when dealing with the peace plan,” an Israeli source told AFP.
