It could have been worse
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit this week to Athens caused the Greek government some embarrassment even while affording it a certain sense of relief. Things could have been much more awkward, or so it seemed to all those who were involved with Rice’s stopover. Her mention of northern Cyprus – as opposed to the Turkish Cypriots – being in need of economic aid failed, unfortunately, to draw a response from her Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyannis. That was probably a result of slow reflexes rather than a reflection of a foreign policy shift. In any case, one could say that Bakoyannis was acting in the heat of the moment. It was not clear why, a day after the visit, Defense Minister Evangelos Meimarakis told journalists that the Souda Bay base «is available» to meet US needs in case it launches a military campaign against Iran. The offer met with public derision, given that throughout her talks with Bakoyannis and Karamanlis, Rice did not even raise the question of any plans for an attack on Iran. Instead she referred repeatedly to «diplomatic efforts» to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program. This was nothing but an indication of confusion and a demonstrated willingness to cooperate with the Americans even in matters where the latter had made no demand. And they manifested a sense of anxiety, which lies far from the spirit in which international relations should ideally be handled. Rice was less assertive than expected. But she did not come here to flex muscles and, after all, she has nothing to prove. Her remarks on Cyprus were typical Washington speak, devoid of sentimentality. Similarly, she spoke later in Ankara of the Kurdish issue in terms of US interests, and of a trilateral cooperation between Turkey, Iraq and the US. Far from what Ankara would have wished, Rice said nothing about eliminating Kurdish rebel bases in Turkey.
