Why Escobar Still Doesn't Know What His New Job Is?

Written by: Sead Numanović, politicki.ba

It has been more than "a couple of weeks" and there is still no announcement about what the new position of the outgoing State Department Special Envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar might be, Politicki.ba reports.

That he is leaving is known. And it is good that he is leaving. Very good!

The State Department has also confirmed it.

"All career diplomats abroad rotate every one to four years, which is standard practice. As a diplomatic officer, Escobar has been in his current position for three years and should move to his next assignment in the coming weeks. Until the scheduled transition, he remains in his role as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, as well as Special Envoy for the Western Balkans," said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State.

The statement was also given to deny a report by a portal that claimed Escobar had abused his position.

The portal Frontliner wrote at the beginning of this month that Escobar had been relieved of his duties.

The State Department reacted strongly via Tanjug. Even unusually sharply.

Escobar himself, during a briefing for a group of journalists, very sharply refuted the claims of Frontliner.

Although the journalists did not even ask him, he felt the need to declare all the allegations in a lengthy statement - lies!

However, that was not noticed.

During that conversation, Escobar also made a few of his own observations, and some caused "gnashing of teeth" within the State Department.

"My claim has always been that it would be wrong to look at Russia as the cause of problems in the Balkans. Russia uses the problems in the Balkans, but the problems are those that have existed for the last 25 years. And by solving the problems, I think we close the opportunities for Russia to do some bad things in the region, but they will try. That is definitely the case," Escobar said.

Such a stance is not exactly in correlation with official U.S. policy.

But there is worse!

In the part of the conversation with journalists that related to Bosnia and Herzegovina, answering a question about what he would do if he could go back in time, he said, laughing:

"Well, it depends on how far back in time we can go. If we could go far enough back to 1991, we should have done more to stop the bloody civil war. We should have done more during the war to support innocent victims. We should have done more to prevent some of the atrocities that occurred. But when that happened, Dayton was the best opportunity we had to stop the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II.

So it's hard to say what – what was possible and what would have been possible. What is important is that we do not look to the past, but look to the future. So, Bosnia and Herzegovina, I have consistently been encouraged by the quality of the new generation of leaders who are ready to seize the historic opportunity to move Bosnia and Herzegovina into Europe as a full and respected member of the Euro-Atlantic community. And I think that should be the point, that looking forward, when we get a new generation of leaders, Bosnia and Herzegovina will progress."

"Bloody civil war"!?

That is certainly not the stance of the State Department, nor of the United States of America.

Politicki.ba checked in Washington!

By downplaying Russia's role and "revising" the U.S. position on the war in BiH, Escobar did himself a disservice.

"A couple of weeks," as stated it would take to complete the procedures for his nomination for a new position, has stretched to almost a month now.

And there are no indications that Escobar will soon receive official information about where the State Department plans to send him.

Ivica Puljić, Al Jazeera Balkans correspondent from the USA, on his X account about 10 days ago relayed, as he wrote, a "rumor" that the Balkan envoy is going very far from this region - to a Latin American country. As an ambassador.

And they are nominated personally by U.S. President Joe Biden.

On the White House website, since May 6 when it was announced that Escobar's Balkan mandate is ending, there is no nomination for him.

In the meantime, Biden has published five pieces of information about nominations. Most are for judicial positions, but there are also political and announcements of nominations for state officials. Escobar is not there.

If he is nominated for ambassador, that could be understood as a recognition. Every official of the U.S. Department of State wants the title of ambassador.

If not, if he is even a deputy ambassador somewhere, that is a punishment.

His stance on the "bloody civil war" in BiH, expressed in his capacity as an official of the U.S. administration, is not the stance of the USA.

Whether that "moment of weakness" and "attack of honesty" will close the path to an ambassadorial position for him, we could know soon.

One thing is certain, Escobar is not returning to the Balkans anytime soon.

All ambassadorial positions there are already filled at least until the end of this year.