US makes major policy shift towards Bosnia and Herzegovina through Palmer and Escobar              

(Patria) - It is shameful and even obscene to talk about corruption being the main problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the moment when ethnonationalist policies are bringing this country to the edge of final disintegration, international relations expert Zlatko Hadzidedic told Patria news agency, commenting on the speech that US Special Envoy for Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar delivered before the US Congress.

"This is obviously a shift of arguments, which only helps these ethnonationalist policies to make their work complete. It should be openly asked: why did the United States - through the actions of Palmer and Escobar - make a total policy shift, which from 1993 through 2020 was aimed at preserving the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina?," asked Hadzidedic.

Escobar addressed the US senators on Wednesday, answering their questions and delivering a report on the situation in the Western Balkans, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He largely diminished the ethnonationalist and separatist policies in the country.

"It is not surprising at all that the European Union countries support the aforementioned secessionist policies, because the ethnic division of BiH is a project imposed by the European Community back in 1992, during the so-called Lisbon Conference. And the EU has never given up on that project and is always treating Bosnia and Herzegovina as a group of three tribes that their so-called chiefs (formerly Alija Izetbegovic, Radovan Karadzic and Mate Boban, and today Bakir Izetbegovic, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic) should divide and annex two parts of its territory to Serbia and Croatia," said Hadzidedic.

However, Hadzidedic stressed, the shift in American policy is a big surprise, because now, together with the EU, it is providing protection against the unconstitutional actions by ethnonationalist forces, openly calling on the High Representative to refrain from applying the obligations stemming from the Dayton Agreement to protect Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"If Escobar and Palmer represent official American policy, it would probably mean that the United States has renounced the Dayton Agreement, despite being its author and previous sponsor. And

I am afraid that this would mean that the entire international legal order is called into question," Hadzidedic warned.