Mitsotakis: Greece would participate in ‘safe’ sea corridor to Gaza

LONDON — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said his country would consider participating in a sea corridor of humanitarian aid to Gaza if ships could operate with “full protection.”

Speaking to POLITICO’s Power Play podcast, Mr Mitsotakis said he would discuss all available humanitarian aid options with French President Emmanuel Macron and Arab leaders at a high-level summit in Paris on Thursday.

The Greek PM told host Anne McElvoy his nation would be well-placed to participate in a maritime corridor to help aid shipments to Gaza.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told last week’s edition of Power Play the U.K. was looking “at all the different ways” to get aid into Gaza, following reports that Britain, France and the Netherlands were considering plans for a maritime corridor.

Mitsotakis said: “Because of our geography, if we can deliver humanitarian aid in an organized manner and ensure that this aid reaches those who actually needed it the most, we would be happy to do so. 

“We just had a plane that landed in Egypt delivering humanitarian aid, and if we can explore the possibility of a sea corridor it would however need the full protection of all the relevant parties to ensure that ships could safely access Gaza.”

Mitsotakis added: “The advantage of a corridor is that you can pack much more humanitarian aid in a ship than you can in a truck. So if the logistics work and if it is actually convenient to do so, rather than transporting aid by plane and then putting it on trucks, if that is something which is doable and it can be done with the maximum amount of safety, I would be very happy to participate in such an initiative.”

The full interview with Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be available Thursday.