ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece will press ahead with its strategic defense cooperation with Israel but also wants to deepen relations with other states in the Middle East, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday.

Greece-Israeli ties and defense, security and energy cooperation have become increasingly close over the past decade and Mitsotakis enjoys a friendly rapport with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. Shared concerns about Turkey have helped boost ties. The two countries signed a 3-billion-euro ($3.5 billion) deal on Aug. 31 for Israel to build an air defense shield in Greece.

Mitsotakis told reporters in Thessaloniki that Greece is only one of five NATO countries spending at least 3.5% of its GDP on core defense.

Greece’s traditionally high spending has been fueled by almost constant tensions with Turkey, and its questioning of Greek sovereignty over parts of the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece recognizes only the demarcation of the two countries’ respective maritime zones as an issue to be negotiated or sent to international arbitration.

Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s expressed desire to sell the advanced F-35 multirole combat aircraft to Turkey, Mitsotakis replied that he will not tell the U.S. what to do, but noted that legal obstacles remain as Turkey was sanctioned for buying the S-400 air defense system from Russia.

Greece will take delivery of its first 20 F-35s in late 2028, with an option to buy 20 more.

Mitsotakis also said he planned to visit Saudi Arabia soon, and that the recently concluded Mecca Joint Defense Agreement among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey changes nothing in Greece’s relations with Riyadh.

Greece has maintained an air defense battery in Saudi Arabia since 2021, and has used its Patriot missiles four times since July to down drones and ballistic missiles, allegedly from Yemen, aimed at the kingdom’s oil refineries.

Mitsotakis will visit Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.

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Associated Press writer Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Friday that it has imposed sanctions on a Turkish financial institution as part of its latest effort to sever “critical financial lifelines” for the Iranian government.

The actions against Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi come after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week launched “Operation Economic Outcast, ” Washington’s new effort to isolate already heavily sanctioned Iran from its remaining trading partners to try to get it to capitulate to U.S. demands after more than six months of war.

The Treasury Department accused the Turkish bank and its entities of being established to enable Iran’s efforts to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where they could then be converted to cash and gold. It also said the institution “knowingly offered” banking services to Iranian financial entities, including those already sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2022 for funneling Tehran’s oil sales.

Bessent, who had told The Associated Press earlier this week that another bank would face economic penalties, said financial institutions with ties to Iran will “continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast.”

“While we hope no more banks will need to be sanctioned, that ultimately depends on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and ceases support of the murderous Iranian regime,” he said in a press release Friday. “We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake.”

But so far, the goal to force those that still do business with Iran to cut off financial ties or face U.S. retaliation has fallen flat, with promises of an “economic D-Day” for a group of countries that could include China and India quickly turning into warnings and negotiations with Iran’s trading partners.

Bessent had previously told reporters that he wanted countries to have an opportunity to shift away from Iran before it was too late in a bid to avoid upending the global financial system.

The Trump administration’s reluctance to penalize major trading partners that still do business with Iran was on display last week when the U.S. took steps to limit an Egyptian bank’s operations in the United Arab Emirates but stopped short of imposing sanctions.

The U.S. also has resumed military strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation in the region. It’s unclear what the outcome of the two-pronged strategy will be for President Donald Trump, who has struggled to end an unpopular war with an intransigent Iranian government as energy prices rise and pose problems for Republicans before November’s midterm congressional elections.

Targeted in the latest U.S. sanctions is Golden Global Investment Bank, which was founded in 2019 as Turkey’s first investment bank to offer “banking services and alternative financing methods” to foreign companies, according to its website.

The Istanbul-based bank, which is largely unfamiliar to most Turks, says it aims to increase Turkey’s foreign trade through target markets in neighboring countries.

The Treasury announcement came a day after Turkey’s state-run Halkbank declared it had reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in a nine-year case focused on violating sanctions with Iran.

In that case, senior officials at Halkbank were said to have illegally moved about $20 billion worth of Iranian oil revenues. U.S. prosecutors claimed high-ranking Turkish government officials received millions of dollars in bribes to protect the scheme.

The Halkbank case caused a rift in U.S.-Turkey relations, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally lobbying the White House to have the case dropped.

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Wilks reported from Istanbul.

ISTANBUL (AP) — The remains of two more people have been recovered from the wreck of a passenger ferry that sank off the coast of Cyprus, the leader of the island’s northern territory said Friday.

The findings bring the total confirmed deaths to 12, with 16 people still missing, Prime Minister Unal Ustel said in comments reported by the Cypriot newspaper Kibris.

The Filo Jet was carrying 267 passengers and crew when it capsized and sank after leaving Kyrenia, a port in northern Cyprus, for Tasucu, Turkey, on Sunday afternoon.

Two Turkish navy search and rescue vessels joined the search, carrying submersible vessels able to reach the ferry wreckage some 550 meters (1,804 feet) below the surface.

Speaking to reporters at Kyrenia, known as Girne in Turkish, Ustel said the remains belonged to two women. The bodies of a man and a woman were recovered earlier.

“Our search operations to reach our 16 missing people continue uninterruptedly on a 24/7 basis with the strong support of the Republic of Turkey and the participation of all relevant units. They are carrying out these operations under very difficult conditions,” Ustel added.

The search operation is being conducted about 7½ kilometers (4½ miles) off the northern Cypriot coast.

Survivors have said the ferry, a wide-bodied catamaran, began listing and taking on water after they heard a number of loud noises from below the decks, sparking panic on board. They said people were trapped inside the passenger seating area as water gushed in and the ship lurched onto its side.

Eight crew and a director of the ferry’s owner, Filo Denizcilik, are in custody. Five others, including Filo Denizcilik staff and port officials, are also under investigation.

Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974, and Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983. Only Turkey recognizes the north of the island, where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey is not backing away from the West as it seeks deeper ties with the East, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday as he headed back from a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

The conference in Kyrgyzstan saw Erdogan hold a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at which they discussed further nuclear cooperation.

In comments made to journalists aboard the presidential plane, Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s goal of becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, whose ten current members include Russia, China, India and Iran.

“I would also like to particularly emphasize that Turkey’s membership perspective in the organization does not mean a break from a bloc or turning our backs on the West,” the president said.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, during which Ankara has maintained friendly relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, Erdogan said it was his and Putin’s “expectation … that the war between Russia and Ukraine ends peacefully as soon as possible.”

He also underlined the importance of maritime security in the Black Sea, where civilian shipping has come under increasing attack.

“There is a need for a mechanism that will permanently ensure the safety of commercial maritime transport in the Black Sea,” Erdogan said, adding that it would be “beneficial” to prevent a “resurgence of the grain crisis.”

Turkey brokered a grain deal in 2022 that opened Ukrainian ports and allowed the movement of Russian food and fertilizer. The agreement, which Putin pulled out of a year later, was vital for global food supplies, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The SCO, founded in 2001, also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Belarus. The growing bloc has been billed as a counterweight to U.S. global influence, although its goals and programs remain vague.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey launched a search operation Wednesday off the coast of Istanbul after two ships collided and contact was lost with one vessel and its crew of 10, officials said.

The collision took place at 3 a.m. in the Marmara Sea a little more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Silivri, a western suburb of Turkey’s largest city, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.

Contact was lost with the crew of the Tugberk Imamoglu, flagged to Turkey, after the collision with the Turkish-flagged Alsu, which appeared undamaged, the governor’s office said.

“Numerous naval units from the coast guard’s Marmara and Bosphorus Command and a coast guard helicopter were dispatched to the scene,” the office added.

The Tugberk Imamoglu, a 90-meter (295-foot) cargo ship, was traveling from Turkey’s Mediterranean post of Iskenderun to Eregli in the Black Sea. The 91-meter (298-foot) Alsu is an oil or chemical tanker sailing from Kocaeli, east of Istanbul, to Aliaga on the Aegean coast, according to the Marine Traffic website.

The Turkish Straits, comprised of the Bosphorus Strait and Dardanelles Strait at either end of the Marmara Sea, are among the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with hundreds of thousands of vessels transiting between the Mediterranean and Black Seas yearly.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey is planning to expand its nuclear cooperation with Russia to build more power plants, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

The signal of deepening ties with Russia is likely to raise concerns among Western allies, who have been worried by Ankara’s closeness to Moscow as the war in Ukraine rages.

Rosatom, a Russian state corporation, is close to completing the Akkuyu nuclear power station on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Its four reactors are expected to generate around 10% of Turkey’s electricity when it comes online.

“The Akkuyu nuclear power plant is of great importance in Russia-Turkey relations. We are now in the final stages,” Erdogan said as he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin following a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan.

He added that, with Russia, Turkey “will take steps together to open some new power plants, along with the opening of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.” His remarks were reported by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan also described relations between the two countries as being “at a much more advanced level today than in any previous period.”

Putin, meanwhile, referred to Turkey as “one of our privileged partners.”

Turkey is dependent on energy imports, with around 70% of its energy needs being met by foreign sources.

Turkey’s Russian imports were valued at $42.37 billion last year, according to United Nations international trade figures. Energy accounted for $29.8 billion.