Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Sunday his country wanted the eurozone to provide a bailout, but one that "respects the Greek people", AFP reports.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Sunday his country wanted the eurozone to provide a bailout, but one that "respects the Greek people", AFP reports.
In a phone conversation, Tsipras said Greece had demonstrated it wanted an agreement, a government source said of the conversation, also reported by the state news agency ANA.
The premier was said to have told Lew a sustainable deal was one which "respects the Greek people and all of their sacrifices in the last five years".
Neither the source nor ANA said what Lew's response was. But US treasury spokeswoman Whitney Smith said Lew "underscored that rebuilding trust requires demonstrating that a programme will be implemented and that there will be measures to make the debt sustainable."
"Secretary Lew reinforced that it is in the best interests of Greece, Europe, and the global economy for all parties to reach a constructive outcome that would put Greece on a path toward necessary reforms as well as debt sustainability and growth within the eurozone," Smith said.
The US treasury secretary has regularly added his voice to the debate in the eurozone about the Greek crisis, urging creditors to examine a restructuring of Greece's mountain of debt.