President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić made a strong statement to the US Embassy in BiH via Instagram.
He found the criticism from the US Embassy in Sarajevo regarding the All-Serbian Assembly quite interesting.
“I found the criticism from our partners at the US Embassy in Sarajevo regarding the All-Serbian Assembly, held on Saturday, to be quite interesting. It seems to me that it was very successful and well-organized, bringing joy to our people. However, I said I would ask some questions. You have all heard many times, both in Serbia and BiH and throughout the region, the phrase ‘the spirit of the Dayton Agreement’. If we, as a country that signed the Dayton Agreement, are not guarantors of its implementation, because they say that is not written anywhere, and if the ‘spirit’ of that signature means exactly that, I would not want to deal with spirits. I will ask the most concrete question for those who said we violated the Dayton Agreement, to our partners from the US Embassy in BiH,” Vučić stated. He then added:
“The Dayton Peace Agreement regulates the competencies of the central authorities and the entities. My first question to them is – how, where, and since when does it say that the property belongs to the central authorities and not the entities. Namely, Article 3.3 of the BiH Constitution, Annex IV of the Dayton Agreement, stipulates that all state functions and powers not expressly assigned to BiH institutions belong to the entities. And Article 3.1 lists the competencies of BiH institutions: foreign policy, foreign trade policy, customs policy, monetary policy, financing institutions and international obligations of BiH, immigration policy, refugees, enforcement of criminal laws, relations with Interpol, international communications, transportation between entities, and air traffic control. As can be seen, there is no mention of public property or public ownership. Therefore, I kindly ask, dear partners from the US Embassy, to specifically answer how you came to the conclusion and based on what act that property belongs to the central authorities and not the entities, as clearly stated in the Dayton Agreement, and why you have participated in creating a crisis in BiH. At the same time, I expect you to answer, as you have said several times, that this is related to the Succession Agreement of 2001, which came into force in 2004. I will tell you right away, do not answer that, because it would be wrong. The Succession Agreement regulates the rights and obligations of member states arising from BiH, not how public property or public ownership will be allocated within one of the member states formed from the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. So, I ask you to answer this one simple question, which is so important, regarding the issue of property in the region on which you insist, and I am very happy that you have accepted this argued, civilized, and without any insults, good discussion, and I am convinced you will provide me with an answer. So, where does it say? That is my question and I look forward to your answer.”
Embarrassing response from the US Embassy
However, it seems that President Vučić received an answer, albeit an embarrassing one, to his question posed to the US Embassy.
In response to the question, “Where does it say that property belongs to the central authorities and not the entities?”, the embassy reportedly told Vučić that “It doesn’t say, but O’Brien said so.”
Source: IN4S
