Vucic: We will fight with heads held up high, protect our interests

NEW YORK - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday in New York the situation concerning a UN General Assembly draft resolution on Srebrenica was not simple and that there was still a lot of work to do, but that Serbia would fight to come away with "our heads held up high."

Speaking to reporters at the end of his visit to New York, Vucic said he believed the people knew the matter had nothing to do with justice and international law, but with geopolitical relations.

"Our job is to protect our own interests. It is good that we have spent a lot of time here," Vucic said, adding that Serbia's Ambassador in Washington Marko Djuric would stay in New York until May 2 for more discussions with UN member states.

He said Djuric would have meetings with representatives of 20 countries, mostly from the Pacific region.

"I would like to thank the team that has worked hard and everyone who is fighting for Serbia, regardless of whether that is their job or not. I would also like to thank (former UNGA president) Vuk Jeremic, who has really worked hard. We continued our bilateral meetings today," Vucic said.

"We had meetings with five European states that we believe might be friendly and might not vote as they have been ordered to. We continued this morning, and we will continue to work as soon as we return to Belgrade," Vucic said, adding that he would like to meet with representatives of a group of African, Latin American and Asian-Pacific states in Belgrade to "again present Serbia's positions."

"As you can see, we have made many people nervous here - their (Western) journalists as well as their politicians. An Asian representative said yesterday the UN has never been in such a mess and that it is unknown what is going on ahead of the May 2 vote on the resolution. We have succeeded in making things a bit complicated - of course, we are aware that we cannot win. As soon as America raises an eyebrow, 70 people rush to vote as the Americans say," Vucic said.

"I have to be completely fair - they (Americans) will vote for the resolution and they will always vote against us in that way, but they were not running the show here and they somehow withdrew - the Germans are the ones who completely took over," Vucic also said.