© Reuters
King Charles with the iconic link at the Dubai climate meeting
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Britain’s King Charles donned a tie with the colors and symbols of the Greek national flag at the Dubai climate conference on Friday, days after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak snubbed his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a dispute over ownership of the Parthenon statues.
Charles, who wore the tie when he met Sunak on the sidelines of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and while delivering a speech at the event, has Greek ancestry through his father, the late Prince Philip, who was born on the Greek island of Corfu, Reuters recalled.
Sunak deepened the diplomatic row with Athens on Wednesday, accusing Mitsotakis of “showing off” and canceling a planned meeting with him in London this week.
A Buckingham Palace source said on Friday that Charles had been wearing the same tie last week before the row escalated. A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment.
British media noted that in addition to a blue and white tie with the same white cross design as the Greek flag, Charles had a blue and white handkerchief sticking out of his jacket pocket.
© Reuters
The statues from the Parthenon are now in the British Museum
“After a week in which Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister to make a ‘stand’ on the Parthenon Marble, King Charles appears to have chosen to wear a very interesting tie when he met Mr Sunak in Dubai today,” he wrote on social platform X ITV TV editor Chris Shipp, who covers the royal family.
After the Brexit referendum vote, Queen Elizabeth II appeared in the British Parliament wearing a blue hat with yellow stamens of daisies, which strongly resembled the European flag, although she never publicly expressed her opinion on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.
The Parthenon marble
Athens has long called on the British Museum to return the 2,500-year-old statues, which British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon in 1806. The museum said it would consider leasing them to Greece only if Athens recognized the museum’s ownership of the sculptures.
Greece hopes with Brexit to get back the friezes from the Parthenon
On Wednesday, the British prime minister told parliament that he had canceled his meeting with Mitsotakis in London the day before because the Greek prime minister had reneged on a prior commitment not to raise the issue during his visit to the UK.
“Inappropriate”
Answering a question, Sunak described it as inappropriate to open the question.
“We are always happy to discuss important substantive topics with our allies, such as tackling illegal migration or strengthening our security. But when it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues of the future, but rather to revisit issues from the past, that was inappropriate,” the prime minister said in parliament.
Q. The Guardian writes that Downing Street had agreed in advance that Mitsotakis would not raise the issue of returning the sculptures during his visit to London, but he broke that agreement when a BBC interview likened them to being taken down from the Parthenon of the Mona Lisa cut in half.
“absurd”
The newspaper quoted Greek sources as saying that the suggestion that such “commitments” had been made was “absurd” and that Mitsotakis would never accept being silenced on an issue so close to his heart.
Greek newspaper Kathimerini quoted the Greek prime minister as saying he intends to maintain good relations with Britain despite the sudden cancellation of his planned meeting in London.
“I definitely want to put this unfortunate incident behind me, but it takes two to tango,” said Mitsotakis, who is also in Dubai for the UN climate conference, in an interview with Bloomberg.
Although the incident has caused controversy between Labor and the Conservatives, they have similar policies on the return of the sculptures, accepting that the law prohibits their return permanently, and they do not plan to change it, writes the Guardian.
2023-12-01 21:22:30
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