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The Greek government is in constant contact at various levels with Israel in connection with the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza, announced the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Grigoris Delavekouras at a briefing. The Greek coast guards detained the American ship Audacity of Hope since it left the port of Pireа without permission of the authorities. His captain was arrested for failing to obey the orders of the coast guard and will testify tomorrow before a prosecutor. Six ships of the fleet with humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip are in Greek ports - Audacity of Hope and two more are in Pirea, two others are on the island of Corfu, and the sixth is on the island of Crete.

"The Greek government’s firm stance is that the siege of Gaza should be raised and the Israeli government is very well aware of it. Although we are of different opinions, we will not allow this to spoil our relations with Tel Aviv, which have been developing extremely well recently," said Grigoris Delavekouras. Yesterday, the Prime Minister George Papandreou spoke to the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and the Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis spoke with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later. "It is an important, constructive initiative on a global level, positive and active," said the Greek diplomat, who unexpectedly appeared at the briefing.

His words made it clear that the Greek government's initiative to deliver this humanitarian aid to Gaza has UN approval, and of the "Middle East Quartet" - the USA, Russia, the UN and the European Union. On Friday, Lambrinidis had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Greece's proposal is to transport the humanitarian aid by its own vehicles, but the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry refused to specify whether it would be delivered to a Palestinian or an Israeli port. "I would not go into practical details at this stage, because they are being specified with the UN. We will officially announce them when they are settled."

Meanwhile, the Greek initiative raised many questions. To start with the contradictions between the Palestinian factions Fatah, which is governing the Palestinian Authority currently and Hamas, which is in control of Gaza. Hamas protested against the suspension of the fleet yesterday. Whether Greece should intervene in the internal Palestinian controversy and what chances of success it would have – it is not clear for now. When Greece officially warned activists on June 22 that it would not allow ships to Gaza to depart from its ports Italy, Cyprus and France did the same. But most ships have concentrated at the Greek ports. "There are people who are interested to discredit us and to show a different Greece rather than the real one," was the comment of Grigoris Delavekouras.

There are also questions raised about the activists currently on board. The Greek government has established contact with them and informed them of the proposal to transport the humanitarian aid for Gaza by Greek vehicles. But they have not accepted it so far. In this case, the question that naturally arises is whether they want that humanitarian aid to reach the destitute inhabitants of Gaza or their ultimate goals are different. The answer might be clear tomorrow, when the captain will stand before the prosecutor.