Vucic: Serbia to ignore US sanctions on Republika Srpska leadership

BANJALUKA - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday Serbia would not recognise US sanctions on Republika Srpska top officials and added that the officials were always welcome in Serbia and that he would continue to cooperate with them.

Serbia is against sanctions because they always produce negative effects and because it has endured nearly a decade under tough sanctions in the past, Vucic said at a press conference with Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik in Banjaluka after a session of a council for Serbia-Republika Srpska cooperation.

"We consider the sanctions on the Republika Srpska leadership as inappropriate and undeserved and, accordingly, despite being a small country and a small people, especially in comparison to a power as big as the US, we have no choice and we will treat the persons under sanctions as if the sanctions were non-existent," he said.

"To us, the sanctions do not exist, we will not be implementing them and we will in no way agree with those who have imposed the sanctions on individuals from our people," Vucic said.

That is the only possible decision for Serbia, but a just, honourable and difficult decision that will undoubtedly produce not direct, but indirect consequences for Serbia, he said.

"We have no choice and we cannot leave our people in the lurch. We will not be putting up blockades on the Drina, like some people have done, banning people from Republika Srpska from coming to Serbia," Vucic said.