ATHENS – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will inform Greece’s partners in the European Union about Turkey’s provocative behaviour while attending the European Council in Brussels, government spokesperson Yiannis Oikonomou said during the press briefing on Monday.

“Our country is always in favour of dialogue but that does not mean that the Greek prime minister and the Greek government will not defend our sovereign rights, our national interests and international legality in the manner that we have been effectively doing for the last three years, which has upgraded our country both geostrategically and geopolitically,” he said.

He also noted that Turkey “revisionism and provocative stance has been condemned in every way by European leaders at a time” and, at a time when Europe and the world were dealing with the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the condemnation of such revisionist practices and mindsets by the world and Greece’s allies was even stronger and more united.

Commenting on the occupation of Greek-owned tankers by Iranian forces, the spokesperson called it an “entirely unprovoked and illegal action”, for which Greece had taken all the necessary steps.

He said that Athens has informed its partners and allies at all international fora, as well as all ships sailing in the surrounding region, so that they might adapt to “this unacceptable situation that the Iranian government’s tactics have created”.

“Any actions taken that concern Iranian owned oil are actions that were carried out on the basis of international agreements and the obligations of the country and following the decisions of justice. Decisions that the authorities whose interests were impacted by such decisions did not contest,” he said.

The spokesperson noted that there was a period of time in which to seek a suspension of the court ruling or to contest it, which had not happened, and that the action regarding the ship carrying Iranian oil was carried out on the basis of the country international agreements and obligations.