Tsipras defends financial rescue deal
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his country fought "a difficult battle" for the past six months to win a financial aid agreement that will allow his country "to stand on its feet".
He said: "We found ourselves before difficult decisions, tough dilemmas. We took the responsibility of the decision in order to avert the implementation of the more extreme aims (of) the more extreme conservative circles in the European Union."
He says Greece managed to resist a request that Greece transfer public assets abroad as well as a "plan of financial suffocation and the collapse of the banking system," which he said had been "planned down to its last detail recently" and had already started to be implemented.
Tsipras stressed Greece won concessions on restructuring Greeces debt and assured medium-term financing.
[AP]
