The Greek Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government and its EU partners appeared to be poles apart at Monday’s Eurogroup meeting on Monday when talks reached a stalemate. “We want an honorable settlement. It’s not a bluff, because it’s the only option we have. It’s Plan A, there is no Plan B,” said Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has been negotiating with finance ministers at the EU finance ministers’ Ecofin meeting from the early hours of Tuesday. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is doing everything possible to find a formula that all sides can agree to by Friday.

Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that there was a “very strong opinion across the whole Eurogroup that the next step has to come from the Greek authorities.” He said that there had been disappointment that Greece had not said what it would be able to do to unlock the remaining 10 billion euros in the country’s 240-bln-euro bailout agreement.

On his part, Varoufakis refused to accept that the ball was back in his court. In fact, he refused to accep that there was a ball. “We are not playing games,” he said, lambasting Dijsselbloem for spoiling chances of a deal before the meeting started. He said that Greece was silling to sign a draft deal presented by European Commission President Pierre Moscovici that would foresee a four-month intermediate program to be monitored by the EC alone. He complained that Dijsselbloem – backed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble – had withdrawn the document and replaced it with one that insisted on framing a deal on the context of an existing agreement that “has failed in the minds of all people who don’t have a vested interest in pretending it hasn’t failed.”

With time running shorter by the minute, a Grexit seems likely if there is no new program. Greece will face difficulties if it makes no financing arrangements to fall back on after the current bailout ends after February 28. The deadline on the credit extension for Greece is Friday, but the European Central Bank (ECB) will on Wednesday evaluate the Greek Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA).

If no agreement is reached, the Greek government will eventually be forced to default, resulting in the ECB cutting the Greek banks off from the Eurosystem liquidity.

Despite the gloom, Varoufakis believes that a deal between the two sides is still achievable despite the Eurogroup deadlock on Monday night. “We are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to reach an agreement over the next two days,” he said. “Europe will do the usual trick: It will pull a good agreement or an honorable agreement out of what seems to be an impasse… I have no doubt that, within the next 48 hours Europe is going to come together and find phrasing that is necessary so we can submit it and move on to do the real work that is necessary.”

“We were and continue to be willing not to take any unilateral initiative during the transitional phase, until the summer, which wouldn’t cause any fiscal derailment and would not include any actions that the ECB would consider as a threat for the stability of the banking sector,” said Varoufakis.