Thursday, January 15, 2009, 10:47pm
The US has to re-route arms shipment to Israel. Athens declined to allow a Greek port be used as a transit point, fearing nationwide protests.
The transit was called off by the Greek government on Tuesday, after the issue provoked a media outcry in Greece, where Israel's 19-day-old offensive in Gaza is deeply unpopular.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, however, painted a different picture, saying that the route had been changed to avoid Greece, "because the Greek government had some issue with the off-loading of some of that shipment in their country."