Greece ready for difficult compromise with creditors: Tsipras

Greece has voiced readiness to make new concessions in talks with the international creditors over the country’s bailout program.

According to reports on Saturday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Athens is ready for “a difficult compromise” in an attempt to end the political and financial row with other eurozone countries.

“If we arrive at a viable accord, even if it is a difficult compromise, we will take up the challenge because our only criteria [sic] is to get out of the crisis,” Tsipras stated.

Meanwhile, reports said the Greek premier has dispatched a high-ranking delegation to Brussels, the European Union’s de facto capital, to hold last-minute negotiations with the bloc’s representatives to prevent a default which looms large over the debt-ridden country.

“We will have a deal... The fact that the Greek delegation is going to Brussels is a good sign,” said Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas, adding that the two sides should do “quickly” whatever “needs to be done.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also confirmed that the talks over Greece’s bailout would continue on a “higher technical level” on Sunday, saying Tsipras “knows that the situation is coming to a head.”

The failure of the talks would bring about “devastating consequences” for both Athens and the eurozone as Greece would have to leave the bloc because of a potential failure to pay massive debts, he warned.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has rejected recent warnings about Greece’s possible exit from the eurozone.

“I do not believe that any sensible European politician will go down that road … I hope they are bluffing,” he said.

Greece’s international lenders - the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission - have refused to pay Athens the sum of $8 billion, the remaining part of the debt-ridden country’s bailout program, saying the country must carry out more economic reforms in order to get the money.

Greece has so far received $330 billion in international loans in return for the implementation of austerity measures.

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