Greek minister quits

ATHENS: Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias quit his post yesterday, the government said, in a cabinet dispute over the country’s controversial name deal with Macedonia. “Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accepted the foreign minister’s resignation,” the PM’s office said in a statement, adding that Tsipras himself would take over the post. Kotzias on Tuesday had clashed in a cabinet meeting with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who is also the coalition partner holding up Tsipras’ government. Head of the nationalist Independent Greeks party, Kammenos has threatened to defect from the government in opposition to the deal brokered by Kotzias and Tsipras earlier this year to rename Greece’s neighbor North Macedonia. The deal has raised strong objections in both countries. Greece also has a northern province named Macedonia, the heart of Alexander the Great’s ancient kingdom. —AFP