Alex Attwood, the SDLP's Stormont House talks negotiator and an assembly member, called for an end to "brinkmanship" but added: "On 8 July, a Tory chancellor will deliver a budget full of further cuts to public spending and social security.
Western diplomats in the Greek capital speak of "a dangerous game of brinkmanship" being played at a highly sensitive time.
But the cold reality is that brinkmanship always favoured the creditors.
I don't deal in brinkmanship," he added.
The bond markets took fright, pushing up the risk premiums on Greek borrowing to exorbitant levels and triggering a spiral of panic and brinkmanship that engulfed Ireland and Portugal and exposed the flimsy foundations of the common currency.
Sifting information from misinformation is a mug's game when both sides in a negotiation are engaged in brinkmanship.
Backing for Yanis Varoufakis, the controversial finance minister most associated with the reckless brinkmanship that has alienated Athens from its euro-area partners, is also high.
It is ridiculous that three months of talks have been characterised by brinkmanship on both sides.
The interim government in Kiev is bound to be aware of Moscow's likely preferences, which is why the brinkmanship in which both sides are indulging is not to be taken at absolute face value.
After all, European leaders have been held to ridicule and contempt for their global brinkmanship over the dysfunctional eurozone in recent years – time and again taking their economies to the cliff, only to pull back just before the markets opened.
For three months, a battle of brinkmanship has been going on between the government of Alexis Tsipras and its European creditors over a cash-for-reforms plan that would give Greece the €7.2bn worth of rescue funds that it needs to meet its debt payments.
