Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Wednesday he was proud of being blacklisted by the United States for obstructing a 1995 peace agreement and called on Bosnian authorities to declare the U.S. ambassador persona non grata in retaliation.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control imposed sanctions against Dodik on Tuesday, blocking access to his assets and banning any U.S. national from doing business with him.
“I am very proud, and these sanctions are the proof that I was not ready to trade off with the interests of Republika Srpska,” Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka.
Dodik has come under fire from foreign officials for advocating the region's secession from Bosnia, statements that have stirred tension among the ethnic groups who fought the 1992-95 war that was ended by the Dayton agreement. More than 100,000 people died in the war.
Claire Bodonyi, the French ambassador to Bosnia, said other European Union member states would decide whether to follow the lead of the United States in the coming weeks.
Dodik said his region has been “under attack of the arrogant outgoing U.S. administration which is pro-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and militarist and anti-Serb”.
The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Maureen Cormack, “is an enemy of the Serbs, she is not welcome to the Serb Republic,” Dodik said, calling on Bosnian Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak to declare her persona non grata in the entire country.
Dodik said he hoped President-elect Donald Trump's administration would bring about changes in U.S. foreign policy. “We do hope that new administration will introduce the politics of stabilization in Bosnia.”
