Izetbegović and Čović at Meeting with Chollet

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - In the late afternoon hours, Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović, presidents of the SDA and HDZ BiH, arrived at the residence of the US ambassador for a meeting with the advisor to the US Secretary of State, Derek Chollet.

Chollet was accompanied by Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who was in BiH last week and held meetings with politicians in both Sarajevo and Banja Luka.

Chollet also met with the High Representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt.

The US official will also have a series of meetings on Tuesday, and at 4:00 PM he will hold a meeting with the members of the BiH Presidency.

The US firmly stands with BiH, supporting its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Both Escobar and Chollet warn that there is no unilateral transfer of competencies from the state to the entity, as initiated by the BiH entity Republika Srpska and the president of the ruling SNSD, Milorad Dodik.

Although the RS Law on Medicines and Medical Devices has been adopted so far, which also plans to establish an entity-level medicines agency alongside the state one, and the Criminal Law prohibiting genocide denial has been repealed, the RS authorities have not yet faced any consequences for these moves. On the contrary, from the RS they announce the withdrawal of numerous competencies, including the BiH Armed Forces, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the BiH Court, the BiH Indirect Taxation Authority, and the ban on the work of SIPA and OSA in the territory of the RS.