Greece plays down prospect of new proposal to revive talks
Greece’s government on Monday played down the prospect of submitting a new counter-proposal as sought by lenders in order to resume negotiations after a breakdown in talks over the weekend.
“We have largely exhausted our limits,” Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told a news conference when asked if Athens would submit new proposals to break the impasse with creditors.
He added that he didn’t see why the current proposal made by Greece was not good enough.
Still, Athens remains confident of reaching a deal to pay off an IMF debt payment at the end of June and did not believe the European Central Bank would make any move that would undermine Greece while negotiations continued, he said.
“We are not naive,” he said. “We are optimistic because no side has an interest in not clinching a deal.”
He confirmed that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras would travel to Russia as planned this week despite the breakdown in talks.
[Reuters]
