Tsipras said he would do whatever was needed to ensure the success of an accord with Greece’s neighbour to end a decades-old dispute over its name.

Tsipras said of assuming the foreign minister role, “It is a decision not to tolerate, from now on, any double-speak from anyone, or any personal agenda in the national line of the country.”

He said he was “pained” to have to accept the resignation of foreign minister Nikos Kotzias who quit amid reports of a growing rift with a coalition partner over a June 2018 deal with Macedonia to end the name dispute.

Media reports suggested Kotzias and Defence Minister Panos Kammenos rowed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday over the deal. Kammenos, who is leader of the junior party in Greece’s left-right governing coalition, was against the accord.