A telephone conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al -Sisi had recently had Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

During the communication, developments concerning the Holy Catherine Monastery of Sinai were discussed following the recent decision of Egyptian Justice.

The prime minister underlined the importance of preserving the pilgrimage and Greek -Orthodox character of the monastery and the resolution of the issue in an institutional way.

The two leaders agreed that the solution is in the already recorded common understanding of the two sides, as well as to what had been agreed and publicly announced during the visit of the Egyptian President to Athens on May 7.

They also agreed that in this context, on Monday, June 2, a Greek delegation would go to Egypt for further processing the agreement with the aim of rapidly completing it.

Earlier, government sources noted that Athens is awaiting the full evaluation of the court ruling yesterday, adding that the Egyptian government’s official announcements are moving in the right direction.

In detail, government officials report:

“The official announcements on the Egyptian side are moving in the right direction. Waiting for the full evaluation of the court ruling, the two governments will continue the debate on the issue in an institutional way, in the direction of common understanding, and those who had been agreed and publicly announced during his recent visit to Egyptian.

Egypt’s response

It is recalled that late last night the Egyptian Presidency issued a statement stating that it “wishes to reaffirm its full commitment to maintain the only and sacred religious regime of the Monastery of St. Catherine and to ensure that it does not. The presidency confirms that the recent court ruling consolidates this regime.

The court ruling is also consistent with what the President of the Republic said during his recent visit to Athens on May 7. The presidency also confirms the importance of maintaining close and brotherly relations that connect the two countries and the two peoples and their non -undermining. “

Diplomatic thriller

Speaking earlier to SKAI 100.3, the monastery’s legal representative, Christos Kobiliris, spoke of a diplomatic thriller of the last hours on the subject.

“Indeed, the ruling of the Egyptian Court of Justice caused disruption and insecurity for the following reason: there had been an agreement,” he said.

“Throughout the last year there have been various postponements of the case that was tried in a second instance by the Egyptian Court of Appeal. This is a case that has begun for over 10 years and serious efforts have been made to be able to close out of court. In this context, a delegation of the Greek Government in Egypt had designed with officials from both the Foreign Ministry and Mr. Kalatzis as the Secretary General of Religions from the Ministry of Education, to meet with a delegation of Egypt and the commander of South Sinai. “

“We had come to a text where some final observations would be made, so that the case could be closed out. So this text that would be an agreement spoke of complete recognition of the monastery’s ownership right of all land. While the decision that came out yesterday, to be careful, is a manuscript of the judge, where he spoke of a recognition of about 46 areas, not the whole that had been agreed, and refers to a right of crisis/possession so that religious duties can be exercised. “

Continuing, Mr Kobiliris spoke of withdrawal from the original agreement that had reached the final level of negotiations, as the signatures were just around the gates.

“The draft of this agreement had been drafted, texts were exchanged, everything is in writing. There must be a very important distinction here: on the one hand it is religious freedom that the monks can perform religious duties, but on the other it is ownership. On the basis of the decision that was currently coming out, it seems to be out of the central gardens of the monastery, around 16 areas. These are vital to the monks, because they live in them. That is, the monastery will actually remain without property. “

“The building itself had been declared 2-3 decades ago as an archaeological site. That can’t change, ”he said.

Speaking on SKAI television, the spokesman for Sinai Monastery in Athens, Archimandrite Porphyrios Frangakos said:

“No one said that the monastery is lost or the monks are leaving. Nor did things change in the evening, these are estimates of those who want to give optimistic tone, “Archimandrite said. “The Sinai Monastery has been in Egypt since the 5th century. From the 5th century until today it has never been dissolved, so that its property was scattered. So we come to the 21st century where Muslim brothers say “those who have your ownership of the 5th century do not belong to you, but to the Egyptian state. We are not talking about huge areas or anything, but about the main building of the monastery.

“In December 2024 we developed an out -of -court settlement with the Egyptian government authorized. He was accepted on both sides and was walking for signatures. Three months went from ministry to ministry in Egypt, we were ready to sign at every moment, and without any warning and no reason May, while they had not signed what they had promised, a court ruling was issued completely against him. “

“Do you know what he was planning? That all 71 areas will belong to the monastery. What does this have to do with the court ruling? If you read the latest Egyptian announcements carefully, he only talks about guest monks, “he added, answering a question if he had received all the documents in the court ruling:

“We have information on the judicial decision that our lawyers see. In relation to the reconstruction of the proceedings, the court ruling has nothing to do with. Should we not be notified by the authorities and we and the Greek government that we would eventually go to a court ruling?