A senior State Department official said that under the threat of separatism from Serbian nationalists, the United States is determined to allow Bosnia to “return from the cliff” and is exploring other options such as sanctions.
Secretary of State Anthony Brinken’s senior adviser, Derek Chollet, spoke before Friday’s meeting of the Bosnian Serb Congress, which is expected to vote on whether to start opting out of the Bosnian military, justice, and tax system. .
Such steps are determined by Nationalist leader Milorad Dodik, It will be an important step towards division. There may be a six-month delay before the parliamentary decision takes effect, but voting may start to count and conflicts may break out again.
Qiaolai’s official title is Counselor of the State Council. He visited Bosnia last month as part of the Biden administration’s diplomatic offensive to resolve Dodik’s long-term deterioration and threats of rebuilding Serb armed forces.
“We are really trying to speed up some of our diplomatic efforts, trying to get back from the cliff,” Cholet told the Guardian. “It’s worth noting that we have been almost 26 years, because Dayton Peace Agreement Signed There are also claims that Bosnia and Herzegovina may relapse into conflict or a major crisis, which worries us deeply. “
During the war, the Bosnian Serb army carried out extensive ethnic cleansing and besieged Sarajevo for nearly four years, destroying the United Nations “safe haven” Srebrenica. Approximately 100,000 people were killed in the conflict.
Qiaolai said that he has given a letter from Brinken to the Bosnian leader, emphasizing that peace in Bosnia is the government’s priority.
“This is a problem, and many people from President Biden to this administration have long-term connections with this issue, and personally have very strong feelings about it,” he said.
As a senator, Biden supported the United States to provide military assistance to the Bosnian Muslim-led government. When the United States intervened in military affairs, Brinken was a member of the National Security Council. Samantha Bauer, the current director of the United States Agency for International Development, was from Sarajevo. A reporter during the war. Chollet was an assistant to the American envoy Richard Holbrooke and wrote a book on the Dayton negotiations.
The second theme of Blincoln’s letter is the threat of sanctions against political leaders who threaten post-Dayton peace. Dodik was the main target of the threat, and he declared that he was not “fart“About sanctions, but Chollet believes they can have an impact.
“I think we have seen some evidence that the influence we have, including sanctions and other policies, can be effective and try to shape behavior,” he said.
As for the possibility of strengthening the international military presence in Bosnia, there are now only a few hundred EU troops. Cholet said he did not want to “discuss in advance” but added that “we are exploring all options.”
Diplomats who recently visited Banja Luka, the largest town in the Republic of Serbia (Republic of Serbia), said that the commercial interests around Dodik were disturbed by the impact of US penalties.
Jelena Subotić, a professor of political science at Georgia State University, said Dodik must also deal with the war-weariness of Serbian voters.
“I think we should take Dodik’s separatist threat very seriously. For many years, he has been communicating his goals, so this did not come out of thin air,” Subotic said. “A bigger question is whether the people of the Republika Srpska will follow. It is one thing to make nationalist remarks, but it is another to actually take up arms.”
During the Trump administration, the United States and the European Union both proposed the idea of race-based land exchange involving the territories of Bosnia and Kosovo as a means of resolving regional dissatisfaction, but Jolay insisted that “this is not the place we have been paying attention to.” .
