The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos met with the Minister of Defence of Lebanon Yacoub Sarraf, who pays an official visit to Greece. The two men signed a bilateral agreement on defence cooperation and discussed matters of mutual interest and the developments in the broader area.

The Minister of Defence of Lebanon expressed his support for the liberation of the two Greek servicemen, and made the following statement:

“First I would like to thank the Minister of National Defence of Greece, Mr. Kammenos, for the great reception that he has given to our delegation and for the great effort that he has developed in signing the bilateral agreement between Lebanon and Greece.

However, I come here to state a very clear position: to back up the Greek Army, especially as far as the return and liberation of the two abducted, the Officer and the NCO, who were abducted by the Turkish Army. This is not the proper way to peacefully respond to bilateral matters and conflict resolution. Those soldiers were executing their own mission; the patrol to protect the borders, hence this type of aggressive, belligerent action does not help neither the development of peace, nor the settlement of the pending issues.

I do stand firmly with the Greek Army and the Greek Government and call for the liberation of those two Officers, as a sign of opening up and trying to shape new values to mitigate the pending conflicts. I do not think that keeping those soldiers any day more will change anything in the proper setting.

I honestly call for the Turks and Turkish Government to make a positive sign by releasing those abducted military”.