Berisha sees ‘third player’ in unmaking of continental shelf pact between Albania, Greece

Former Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha has blamed the unmaking of a continental shelf pact between Albania and Greece five years ago on outside intervention.

“I am saying with full certainty that you did so in the interests of a third party,” Berisha said in reference to current Prime Minister Edi Rama and his government.

He added that the Albanian people would soon come to understand the true motives of the Rama administration.

An agreement between Athens and Tirana delineating the continental shelf and maritime borders in the Ionian Sea was signed in 2009 between Berisha and his Greek counterpart at the time, Costas Karamanlis.

The deal was later annulled by Albania’s constitutional court following action by then opposition leader Rama.

Although various observers have spoken of Turkish pressure to cancel the deal, no Albanian official – including Berisha – has ever admitted so in public.