ATHENS – US ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt said 2018 will be the year of a Greek economic recovery and lauded the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA for being a friend despite its previous anti-American, anti-NATO stance.

Pyatt, speaking at the annual New Year’s cake-cutting ceremony at the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, noted that the US this year will be the honored country at September’s annual Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), following China last year.

That continues the irony of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who spoke at the funeral of one his heroes, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, turning himself around to renege on anti-austerity promises and to move toward letting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) keep the word Macedonia in a new composite name and get into NATO and the European Union.

Taking Greece out of NATO and removing an American military base on Crete were part of SYRIZA’s and Tsipras’ pre-election campaign before he took office in January, 2015 and broke essentially every promise he made.

The US had also lambasted him for the prison furlough given a notorious leader of the now-defunct November 17 terrorist group that killed 23 people, including five Americans, leading to a harsh rebuke of the government.