Komšić on Lagumdžija's decision: Unnecessary act that can only harm BiH

(Patria) - Chairman of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić commented after Zlatko Lagumdžija decided that BiH would co-sponsor the proposed resolution condemning Iran.

"So, regarding this whole saga of co-sponsoring the Resolution of six Gulf countries plus Jordan, which condemns Iran's actions on their territory, I must say that Ambassador Lagumdžija contacted me several times and I also told him several times that I am against joining this Resolution, or rather, that I am against being a co-sponsor of this Resolution.

This Resolution condemns Iran for acting against these countries, but it does not mention that Iran, which has been attacked, has the right, under the UN Charter, to defend itself and that any country from whose territory an attack on a certain country originates is considered an aggressor. Iran did not initiate these activities first, but these activities were directed towards Iran. All actions taken by Iran can be characterized as defensive.

Secondly, I don't think co-sponsoring this Resolution brings any benefit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

No one from the BiH Presidency officially requested it, at least as far as I know. Except that Cvijanović announced that she spoke with someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, who asked her to join this Resolution.

We did not vote on this Resolution anyway, because we are not a member state of the Security Council. In my opinion, it is a completely unnecessary act, it brings no benefit to BiH, but it can cause great harm. In parallel, the story about Russia's Resolution condemning the attack on Iran emerged. I also told Lagumdžija that I am against potentially joining that Resolution as well, because I think the Resolution itself is hypocritical, after all that Russia has done in Ukraine. So, that was my stance.

After Cvijanović's written request to hold an extraordinary session on this topic arrived, which was on 11.03. at 3 PM, I naturally acted as the Rules of Procedure dictate, I scheduled the session within 24 hours, as Cvijanović herself requested in her letter. It was certainly too late to join the Resolution, meaning the session of the BiH Presidency would have been held many hours after the vote on the Resolution in the UN Security Council. But that was Cvijanović's request.

Therefore, there was no room to act otherwise. Why this Resolution was joined are questions that should be directed to other people and other institutions, not the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I think it is important to note here that, out of the six countries proposing the Resolution, three of them – the Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman – did not vote for our Resolution on Srebrenica. I also pointed this out to Lagumdžija.

This is how the situation related to the co-sponsorship of the mentioned Resolution developed. None of us, not even the United States of America, asked us to co-sponsor it. Therefore, there was no reason to step into such a geopolitical rift, and now have to explain and justify why we did it as a country.

Of course, it has already happened, it is a done deal, in my opinion, harm has been done. How this will affect the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the future, we will see. I hope that the damage to BiH's reputation will not be too great, and that those who will vote on it and possibly analyze such a move by BiH diplomacy will take into account the full complexity and a kind of chaotic system when it comes to the work of the diplomatic-consular network.

I note that according to the BiH Constitution, only the BiH Presidency is competent to take a stance on such issues, especially in such a delicate situation that has global significance", stated Komšić.