Published: November 12, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Crossfire War - Athens and Belgrade Sign Defence Agreement
By Willard Payne
Crossfire War - ATHENS WATCH - Southeast Europe Theatre: Athens - Belgrade - Ankara - Tehran/Vienna - Warsaw - Rome - Brussels; Athens - Belgrade Sign Security Agreement - Preparation for Fighting Over Kosovo
Night Watch: ATHENS - The Athens News Agency has just reported Greece and Serbia have signed a defence agreement. It is a strategic balance to the security agreement Serbia signed with Iran last January. The West, Brussels-NATO, lost Greece with the bombing of Serbia for 78 days in 1999, since Serbs and Greeks practice the same Orthodox religious ritual. Greece and Turkey have increased their relations and foreign policy cooperation as a result but there were those in Western governments and foreign policy circles who still assumed Athens, when the shooting gets started, again, believed Greece would never take a stand opposed to the West. Athens has also let it be known publicly that has no problem with Tehran's nuclear program and I assume Athens is fully aware it is for weaponry. [SERBIANNA]
Strategic cooperation between Athens and Belgrade was apparent even during the first phase of the Balkan war in from 1991-95. When the United Nations Security Council on May 30, 1992, formally accused Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia's leader of aggression, and the main reason for the war and imposed comprehensive sanctions on Serbia - Montenegro, Greece enabled Serbia to break the embargo. Athens guaranteed material support, including oil, managed to get through to Belgrade. Athens was never reluctant to give more than just moral support. There were even reports that some Greeks were fighting alongside Serbs.
Athens, the world's frankest dialogue center, also conducted maneuvers with Turkey in Kosovo during August of 2005. Greek units stayed in a barracks named after an Ottoman Emperor. There is also regional identity. Every capital in the Balkans hates Vienna once again, the former imperial ruler of Yugoslavia. That hatred is one of Tehran's greatest weapons against the West. This is why NATO will not survive. Brussels has no one to blame but itself, it never should have recognized the division of Yugoslavia. It was an enormously regressive step backwards. It revived disputes I thought Europe had buried with World War II. The war has buried instead the New World Order Vienna was supposed to conduct and orchestrate after the Cold War.
Night Watch Information Service
http://www.crossfirewar.com
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