That was an ominous sign for the likelihood of a deal in the protracted negotiations between cash-strapped Greece and its creditors, the IMF and the euro-zone countries represented by the European Commission.
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“The ball is very much in Greece’s court,” worldwide Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters at a media briefing in Washington on Thursday. “There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently and thus we are well away from an agreement”.
A default could send Greece crashing out of the Eurozone, with possibly disastrous consequences for the bloc and beyond.
Rice said the sticking points remained pensions, taxes and financing. The IMF technical team had returned to the United States but remained “fully engaged” with Athens.
The IMF’s move may have been the day’s most dramatic gesture, but European leaders were also talking tough.
Athens stood by its assertions of recent days that all is not lost.
“It was agreed unanimously that the talks between the Greek government and the institutions should be pursued with great intensity”, a German government spokesman said in a statement that described a meeting conducted in a constructive atmosphere. “There is no more space for gambling, there is no more time for gambling.
The day is coming I’m afraid that someone says that the game is over”,
Tusk said at a press conference before the IMF announcement.
“We decided to intensify the effort to bridge the remaining differences and proceed – I think will proceed – to a solution”, Mr. Tsipras said after the talks.
Tsipras plans to meet Thursday with Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Union’s executive Commission, which is helping to supervise Greece’s bailout program. “
Come in the torture room”,
Juncker told Tsipras at the start of their meeting.
The EU says that can only be considered after a deal to complete the existing bailout is secured.
The latest in a run of sleep-defying meetings was partly political theatre, as all involved try to show their commitment to a deal – and avoid any blame for failing to avert a crunch that could unsettle the euro and the world economy.
Cutting through days of dense diplomatic talk about the state of negotiations, Tusk said it was time for Tsipras to stop biding for time with unworkable demands.
Tsipras was due to continue talks with Juncker on Friday, but in view of the latest impasse, it may now be postponed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing growing opposition among her ruling conservatives to granting Greece any further bailout funds.
Merkel’s government said before the meeting it might consider endorsing a pay-per-reform deal, Bloomberg reported citing two people familiar with Germany’s position, but no confirmation was forthcoming following the talks.
But Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, sidelined from the talks after infuriating his euro zone counterparts, denied that Athens had agreed to a primary surplus target of 1 percent of gross domestic product sought by the creditors.
Mr. Tsipras and his radical left Syriza government, which was elected in January on an anti-austerity pledge, has fiercely resisted pension reform, especially the creditors’ demands that it eliminate an income top-up for the poorest pensioners.
“There is a strong determination to help Greece”, ECB policymaker Jens Weidmann, the hawkish chief of Germany’s Bundesbank, said in a speech in London.
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