Greece looks on with apprehension as two regional wars grow under Trump

US president Donald Trump was meant to be a ‘peacemaker’. He has instead emboldened Russia in Ukraine and joined Israel in strikes on Iran

The war Israel launched against Iran with air and missile strikes on June 12 had some immediate implications for Greece.

According to media reports, Greece moved a Patriot missile battery to Crete, to protect the US airbase in Heraklion and the US naval base in Souda, which both become staging areas when the White House is considering military action in the Middle East.

Iran possesses ballistic missiles capable of reaching the Aegean and most of mainland Greece.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the phone on Saturday June 14, a day after the Israeli strikes. “The prime minister stressed the need for de-escalation,” said Mitsotakis’ office. “He recognised that Iran must not have a nuclear arsenal, but underlined that the solution is in diplomacy, and the last thing the region now needs is to open up new military fronts.”

Mitsotakis has consistently warned about “serious consequences for security and stability” in his weekly Facebook updates as well, warning that “further escalation will produce even more instability” after US president Donald Trump decided to enter the fray and strike nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz with Massive Ordinance Pentrator bombs on Sunday 22 June.

US president Donald Trump appears to be trying to score a quick win alongside Israel, but not to become deeply involved in Israel’s efforts to bring about regime change in Iran.

CBS News reported that the US reached out to Iran diplomatically on Saturday [June 21] to say the strikes were all it planned and that the US did not intend on regime change efforts.

Greece’s energy and environment minister, Stavros Papastavrou, went on air on Sunday morning [June 22] to reassure the public that energy prices will not shoot up as they did after the war in Ukraine, because Greece has now sufficiently diversified its energy sources – meaning, it produces half its electricity from renewable sources not susceptible to the fluctuations of hydrocarbons.

A few questions and answers on how we got here: