10 October 2008 | The visa requirement for Greek citizens going to the US will not be dropped, Greek media reported today.

After a delay in the negotiations, the US government decided to uphold the visa requirements, citing “political reasons,” while Greece continues with its attempts to change the American position, the Ethnos newspaper wrote today.

According to the publication, the White House is trying to punish Greece for a series of actions on the part of Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, especially the case of the Greek veto on Macedonia’s membership to the EU.

Other of the media’s sources say that it is no secret that the Americans’ reasons for excluding Athens from the visa-free regime are purely political and linked to terrorism, as Washington still insists that the people responsible for the terrorist act against the US embassy in Athens in 2006 be found.

Greece hopes that the US administration’s decision is not final, according to a statement by the Greek Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson George Koumoutsakos, cited by the Naftemporiki newspaper. The decision affects Greek citizens who want to travel to the US for tourism, family or professional reasons.

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