Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party kept up the pressure on the leftist-rightist coalition government this week over a controversial - and ultimatedly foiled - attempt to sell surplus munitions to Saudi Arabia, with opposition MPs questioning the authenticity of documents tabled by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.
Kammenos presented documents he said proved that an Athens-based intermediary was actually the official plenipotentiary of the Saudi government in the deal.
The development comes in the wake of a resolution by the European Parliament, passed by a wide majority of MEPs on Thursday, calling for a weapons embargo on Saudi Arabia by EU member-states. While non-binding, the resolution nevertheless provided "political cover" for the embattled Tsipras government to terminate any prospect of the agreement being fulfilled. The ill-fated deal was more-or-less doomed in the wake of the furor created in Athens over the past two weeks, which culminated in a heated and marathon debate in Parliament on Monday.
In an unscheduled press briefing on Thursday, two ND MPs said Kammenos - the founder and head of a small rightist-populist party that props up the current Tsipras government - provided documents that do not include at least 10 points found in a similar agreement Riyadh and the Serbian government.
ND has charged that the Saudi government actually backed out of the deal because it declined to work via an intermediary, instead insisting on a government-to-government agreement. On his part, Kammenos has maintained that the dealer, identified as one Vassilis Papadopoulos, was actually in the employment of Riyadh.
A Parliament MP since 1993, the 52-year-old Kammenos was kicked out of ND in 2012, only to found his own small nationalist, anti-bailout, anti-austerity party that squeezed into Parliament on two occasions, in January 2015 and September 2015. His Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party served and serves as the junior partner in the Tsipras government, joining radical leftist SYRIZA.
