American diplomats clash over Serbia
The struggle for influence in Serbia unfolded between the US State Department's special representative for the Balkans, Matthew Palmer, and Donald Trump's special representative for the negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, Richard Grenell.
The Serbian newspaper Blitz writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Palmer's biggest problem is Grenell. This is a competition not so much between them personally, but between the State Department and the White House,” a diplomatic source from Washington told Blitz.
It is this competition that the newspaper explains Palmer's recent harsh statements on Serbia. The American diplomat threatened Belgrade with sanctions for the purchase of Russian and Chinese weapons, and also threatened that Serbia would never join the EU if it did not recognize the independence of Kosovo.
“His unusually harsh statements, or rather threats, surprised part of the Serbian public, but only those who are little familiar with the internal relations within the American administration, that is, with the problems in relations between the State Department and the White House,” writes Blitz.
According to the publication, Ambassador Grenell wants to invite Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to Berlin for a forum on peace and stability. This will be a reaction to Palmer's visit to Belgrade and his personal meeting with Vucic.
However, the competition between diplomats is for the interest of the United States, which opposes Serbia’s purchase of S-300 and S-400 air defense systems from Russia.
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