Bizarre that the word "Kosovo" - which is why Serbia was subjected to NATO bombing 24 years ago - is nowhere to be found in this thread. Phrasing like this just reinforces the prevalent sense that Serbia was unfairly victimized. Surreal.
Just a reminder - this remains the operating system of
#BiH
politics. And with
@OHR_BiH
's imposition, pushed by
@StateDept
, we just reinvested in it...
A critical intervention by German MEP
@Gahler_Michael
, a foreign policy spokesman for
@EPPGroup
, on
@MiroslavLajcak
’s performance as EU envoy for Kosovo & Serbia.
Crucial questions about his siding with Serbia’s president
@AVucic
& an accurate summary of his failures since 2020.
@CounselorDOS
The USG should stop treating BiH as an appendix of Croatia & Serbia. Once upon a time, Washington sidelined predatory Zagreb & Belgrade on BiH. Now we cater to them. This is the apotheosis of 16 yrs of transatlantic - & bipartisan - failed policy toward BiH. Beneath us...
1/The West has been complacent too long about the vulnerability of/in
#BiH
, despite its license to employ powerful tools to maintain peace, security, and territorial integrity. Russia's imperial invasion of Ukraine has highlighted these weaknesses. A short thread 👇
@SecBlinken
@AndrejPlenkovic
Covic and his ally Dodik (both pro-RU) sure seem emboldened at the
@Europarl_EN
today, given their incendiary hate speech. US treatment of
#BiH
like a Croatian-Serbian condominium, as well as pressing "electoral reform" a la Covic, has to stop. This is shameful for America.
@realDonaldTrump
If I were a European I would be for building an independent EU deterrent, given your "leadership" and defiling all our most important relationships. You are a
#NationalDisgrace
and a threat to American security.
It's worth reiterating that if the EU (and its member states) had been committed to maintaining a credible deterrent in
#BiH
since it took on the role from
@NATO
, Dodik would never have been able to take things as far as he has.
#DeterrenceFailure
#Srebrenica
was the culmination of years of protracted moral & stategic failure by the West - and of US leadership. The
#BiH
's current crisis is also the predictable - and foreseen - outcome of 17 years of failure. Commemoration w/o learning insults victims & survivors.
Riding into
#Sarajevo
at night, with all the lights in the mountain heights, always feels like entering a galaxy. It will never lose its magic for me. I think being a born flatlander probably amplifies that.
In 1923, Adolf Hitler led a failed coup. He was treated leniently. Germany moved on.
A decade later, he was dictator, and the worst disaster in the history of the civilized world ensued.
In 2021, when the president of the United States leads a failed coup, we must not move on.
@tcsmithbiz_nobo
@kylegriffin1
It's like being rabbit punched daily and nonstop for a year and a half - I guess eventually the numbness and out of body experience sets in. That's what Trump and Co are counting on.
1/ I am preparing to update my PhD dissertation ("Peace Cartels: Internationally Brokered Power-Sharing and Perpetual Oligarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia") for publication. I defended three years ago - and it's been an eventful interval. This passage hit me...
@realDonaldTrump
You dunderfuck. If you read books, you'd know why the EU was formed - and it wasn't to "play the game against the US." We encouraged it, for good reason. And it's STILL good for a US that cares about democracy, human dignity, etc - clearly that's not the America you have in mind
@apmassaro3
I wonder whether this act will provide a rationale for application of NATO airpower to hit Russian missile launchers and artillery, to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. This is criminally insane.
1. A few thoughts this morning on the dangerous degeneration in Bosnia and Herzegovina... The fact that we are experiencing such a crisis in 2019 - 23.5 yrs after Dayton - itself frames an enormous moral and policy failure.
The EU should take this direct threat to Bosnia and Herzegovina very serious, considering the Russian aggression towards Ukraine. I expect an official condemnation by
@JosepBorrellF
, fiercely defending the sovereignty of BiH.
The West's “stabilocracy fantasy,” first pioneered in the Balkans, has reached its extreme, bloody conclusion in the war in Ukraine, writes
@JasminMuj
in
@newlinesmag
Important thread on foreign affairs committee chairs, MEPs, and national legislature MPs on the West's lopsided policies toward
#Kosovo
and
#Serbia
. More broadly, legislative scrutiny is essential to righting EU, US, and UK Balkan policies gone far astray and counterproductive.👇
10 Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees and 56 Parliamentarians have called on the US, EU & UK to change our approach to
#Kosovo
and
#Serbia
.
We need deterrence diplomacy, where we ensure there is balance in our dealings, and we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. 1/
1/2 My interview with
@Oslobodjenjeba
re the continued US-propelled effort to amend the election law to satisfy
@Dragan_Covic
via
@OHR_BiH
, whistling past the graveyard on
@EUFOR
, & EU member states' self-neutering when it comes to sanctions in
#BiH
-
@USEmbassySJJ
1. Sorry, my fellow Americans, this is weak. First off, in an embassy of that size, stating nobody had the time to read a ruling everyone knew was coming at a set time just isn't credible.
@lrozen
At Tomb of the Unknowns, you could see after
@POTUS
and VP
@KamalaHarris
paid respects and turned, they were feeling the full weight of their new responsibilities. A look and recognition we haven't seen in some time. Respect.
@josattler
I'm sure that has him shaking in his boots. Especially when the
#VarhelyiPackage
offers him what he (and his ally Dragan Covic) want. Words words... The EU has the mandate, but it is evidently failing to deliver a credible deterrent.
1/3 - On both
@bbcworldservice
radio and
@BBCWorld
TV this morning,
@albinkurti
gave strong interviews and analysis on the potential impact of Russia's attack on Ukraine for the Western Balkans - esp. via Serbia and RS in
#BiH
.
@StateDeptSpox
The citizens didn't form the govt.
@OHR_BiH
, at
@StateDept
direction, did. Ain't no good guys in BiH politics, given the incentives written into Dayton. But optimizing oligarchy is a lousy look for the convener of the
#Summit4Democracy
, no?
32/ Re BiH, the German govt has effectively surrendered to the US, EC and EEAS, and Schmidt – a tragic continuation of former Chancellor Merkel’s BiH non-policy. Had Merkel been serious about BiH and the region, Schmidt never would have been nominated.
Very glad to hear Sec-designate Blinken sees ratcheting down the proportion of political appointee ambassadors down to the historical norm of approx 30%, in response to Sen. Kaine's Q
This is neither surprising nor reassuring. 100% on brand - and a just in tume delivery, at that. Yet another data point to support the obvious:
@euforbih
command should not go to a Hungarian.
@usambserbia
@predsednikrs
@USEmbassySJJ
If he could be prodded to emulate Stipe Mesic's message to BiH Croats, right after becoming President, that their capital is Sarajevo, that would be something. Nobody from Serbia after 10/5/00 came close to sending such a clear message. Not holding my breath here.
What's worst about this, if accurate: it will confirm what people in the region have long feared: that they are lower-grade Europeans in the eyes of W. Europe - and codify it if accepted. It would alienate those who've advocated for EU standards for societal good. Insulting.
If
@EmmanuelMacron
believes the Western Balkans will, in any sense, be silent once the EU horizon had formally collapsed - as it has all but done thx to his obstructionism - he’s possibly the most dangerously uninformed and ignorant leader in Europe. Good Lord, man.
The fact that
@usambserbia
embraced
@avucic
as a partner after this exposure - and as he faces the greatest domestic challenge to his dominance - shows how determined the US is to stick to its regional
#pacification
strategy. Democratic values be damned.
@usambserbia
Self-evidently baseless statements like this just reinforce Vucic's confidence that he can continue to play the West, consolidate at home & pursue Srpski Svet regionwide. A clear advertisement in neon of the moral & strategic unmooring of US policy in the region. Not a good look.
@franakviacorka
This is a government which can make no pretence of popular legitimacy. They gave up worrying about appearances. They expect impunity. They must not be allowed it.
Dr. Valery Perry za Istragu analizira nedavne stavove američkog diplomate o građanskoj BiH: Escobarove izjave za nastavak antidemokratske prakse via
@Istraga
@ThePlumLineGS
@AdamSchiff
“Barr has shown a bottomless capacity to pervert the mission of the Justice Department into serving the president’s illicit ends.”
@tcsmithbiz_nobo
@kylegriffin1
A lot of media have done great work to keep us informed. And the judiciary (under siege), Dems in Congress (with precious few GOP colleagues), and state govts push back. It's just the volume is insane, so 360. Meet the real Teflon president (at least for his tribal following).
Tekst Njujork tajmsa o Aleksandru Vučiću podelio je barem jedan visoki zvaničnik Stejt departmenta, a o tome se govorilo i u Kongresu SAD. Pitanje koje se postavlja je: da li to može da utiče na politiku SAD prema Vučiću/Srbiji?
Opširnije na linku 👉
The Serbian military buildup on its border with Kosovo provides yet another reason for units brought into
#BiH
for
@euforbih
's
#BrziOdgovor
exercise, which ended today, to stick around - on top of the standing deterrence failure and upcoming
#UNSC
vote in early November.
My/
@DPC_global
and
@SeloSabic
latest on the rapidly deteriorating situation in
#BiH
- and the
#US
,
#EU
and
@NATO
responsibility. This is a deterrence failure. It requires,a security response. Now.
#Bosnia
’s international overseer has imposed
#ElectionLaw
& Constitution changes that reward an ethnonationalist political party.
Bodo Weber and
@KurtBassuener
say US support retreats from respect for greater integration in the
#WesternBalkans
:
Macron breaks Balkans promise in quest for EU dominance - latest by
@tobyvogel
and myself for
@DPC_global
on the effect of dashing of North Macedonian and Albanian hopes for EU membership talks
Nigeria’s top police official orders all officers to "dominate the public space" after days of peaceful protests over police abuses and violent unrest that left 69 people dead.
This is good news - and not a minute too soon to sanction the chief cheerleader of
#SrpskiSvet
. But he's
@avucic
's responsibility - as is Stpski Svet.
Like I said
@DanielSerwer
gets it. The West has facilitated Serbia's will to regional hegemony for too long... He cites a proposal by
@JasminMuj
in here as well:
FL deformity: we are having a heavy lightning storm roll in here in Sarajevo - and I am giddy, grinning ear to ear. It's like a visit from a long absent relative. 🤗
@michaeldweiss
"'1938 is actually really important because that was a terrible mistake. Had Britain and France stood behind Prague, they would have made the second world war impossible — or at least in the form that it took,' Snyder says."
#Munich
Thread by us
@DPC_global
on
@OHR_BiH
's election night imposition and the damage this does to
#BiH
, the OHR itself, US, and international credibility 👇
After two months of uncertainty,
@OHR_BiH
High Rep Schmidt last night imposed a broad set of amendments to the Federation of BiH Constitution & the BiH Election Law.
A well-crafted and well-informed piece on the moral and strategic vacuity of the West's policies in the
#WB6
. Having just traveled the region, the sense the the US & EU have aligned w/ wannabe regional hegemons is widely held among those who ought to be the West's values allies.
Recent actions by the
#US
administration have demonstrated an imbalanced approach to
#Kosovo
-
#Serbia
relations, with increased pressure on Kosovo while turning a blind eye to
#Vucic
's regime.
By
@VisarXhambazi
.
➡️
Senior Trump adviser tells
@Acosta
Trump is "clueless what any of this means internationally or historically," but Trump has told aides and advisers he does fear what the violence at the Capitol has done to his businesses and "the long-term brand."