Izetbegovic: I will meet Vucic as ‘influential Bosniak and politician’

Bakir Izetbegovic, deputy speaker of Bosnia’s House of Peoples and the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), said he would meet President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, noting that he won’t be representing the Bosniaks in the meeting but will take part in it as an “influential Bosniak and politician.”

“I will most probably not go to Belgrade, Vucic will come to Sarajevo, but we will see what happens. President of Serbia should meet with the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all of us who can positively contribute to the prosperity of Bosnia and Herzegovina should engage in talks,” Izetbegovic said.

He stressed that he refused the meetings where he was invited in the capacity of a Bosniak.

One of such invitations he received from President of Croatia Zoran Milanovic but he did meet him “for a cup of coffee” alongside former president Stjepan Mesic.

Asked if meetings out of the institutions are right place for talks, he replied that discussions take place in the parliament as well, mentioning a session of the House of Peoples, which took place the other day.

Speaking about the influence of international actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the politician said they are taking the side of Bosnia and Herzegovina but that he is not happy with the way they do that.

International mediators, he said, are “unfortunately” still needed in the talks on electoral reform. According to him, the foreigners primarily want to solve the relations between the Bosniaks and the Croats but that they prefer to do it in the way that would interest the Bosnian Croat negotiators and “not in the way that we would be interested in.”

“And that’s why I repeated that nothing will be solved unless everything is solved,” he stressed.

Izetbegovic deems that these talks on electoral reform should include representatives of all parliamentary parties all at once, and not in separate meetings, otherwise, any potential agreement between him and the Croat leader Dragan Covic would be dismissed by those who did not take part in the talks.

He did not want to speculate about potential US sanctions on individuals from Bosnia and Herzegovina or any of his political party members. According to Izetbegovic, his political party is trying to confront the anti-constitutional activities and should not be grouped among those who are blocking the institutions at the state level and lower levels of authority.

As for the corruption allegations involving the SDA members, he said the lawsuits will show what happens next.