Escobar will not meet with opposition leaders from FBiH

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the USA and special envoy of US President Joe Biden, held a meeting today with the presidents of SDS and PDP, Mirko Šarović and Branislav Borenović, in Banja Luka.

Escobar is concluding his working visit on Wednesday, and as two presidents of opposition parties in FBiH and the BiH Parliament confirmed to Patria, they still have no invitation for a meeting with the American official.

We remind you that Escobar arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday afternoon, where he met with representatives of the business and social community in BiH.

He held a series of meetings with members of the Presidency of BiH, members of the Collegium of both houses of the BiH Parliament, leadership and presidents of party caucuses in the Federal Parliament.

He also held meetings with environmental activists.

Although it was expected that Escobar would announce sanctions due to the unilateral withdrawal of competencies from the state to the BiH entity of RS, which has already begun with the adoption of laws in the NSRS, and a whole set of new laws related to defense, judiciary, and indirect taxes is in preparation, according to the statements of both politicians and Escobar himself, no one mentioned sanctions.

The blockade of institutions that has been ongoing since July, and which representatives from RS are intermittently interrupting, will continue, given that there are no signals indicating that Milorad Dodik and the authorities in RS have received any warning to stop these activities and the dismantling of state institutions.

It is interesting that a meeting between Escobar and the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt, was not announced, whose report on BiH was the subject of discussion at a UN Security Council session last week. Schmidt very clearly warns that the crisis in BiH could escalate, and considers the formation of the RS Army, which Dodik announced within six months, to be a red line.