Biden sent five seasoned diplomats to the Balkans who contributed to the collapse of Yugoslavia
Since the US President sent the strongest hawkish diplomats of the Clinton era to the Balkans, it can be assumed that he intends to close the “Serbian issue.”
It is reported Blic, reports the correspondent of PolitNavigator.
According to the publication, Biden's "five professionals" are Gabriel Escobar, Christopher Hill, Jeffrey Jovenier, Michael Murphy and James O'Brien, some of whom will work with the region as ambassadors, some as special envoys of the State Department. What all these people have in common is that they are seasoned by active diplomatic activity, know the Balkans almost like the back of their hand and speak Serbian.
Thus, Gabriel Escobar was appointed State Department envoy to the Western Balkans. After the victory of the first color "Bulldozer Revolution" in Yugoslavia and the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, he became head of the political department immediately after the US reopened the embassy in the country. Then he served as head of the administration of the High Representative for BiH in Banja Luka (Republic of Srpska BiH), then as deputy head of the diplomatic liaison group in Podgorica (Montenegro).
Biden has appointed Christopher Hill as the new US Ambassador to Serbia, and his arrival in Belgrade is expected next year. He was a close associate of the US special envoy to Yugoslavia Richard Holbrooke, a member of his team and a participant in the negotiations in Dayton (on Bosnia and Herzegovina) and in Rambouillet (on Kosovo), as well as a special envoy for Kosovo at the peak of the armed rebellion of Albanian separatists from 1998 to 1999, then Ambassador to Macedonia.
Geoffrey Jovenier has been appointed as the new ambassador to Kosovo, where he will be reassigned from Turkey. He was a participant in the negotiations in Rambouillet as part of Martti Ahtisaari's team, which, in fact, persuaded Belgrade to withdraw from Kosovo. He participated with Escobar in restoring the work of the US Embassy in Belgrade, headed the temporary office of the US Embassy in southern Serbia, whose duties included “monitoring” the armed rebellion of Albanians in the Presevo Valley, and in 2018 he received a medal from the hands of the ex-militant leader “ Kosovo Liberation Army,” the “president” of the region, Hashim Thaci.
The new US Ambassador to BiH, Michael Murphy, served in senior positions in Sarajevo as a political adviser at the US Embassy from 2006-2009, and in Pristina, where he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy from 2009-2012.
Last but not least in this team, the publication mentions James O'Brien, who was appointed coordinator of the US State Department's sanctions policy for the Western Balkans. From 1989 to 2001, he was a senior adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who personally drew targets on the map of Yugoslavia for NATO bombing, and was the US Presidential Envoy to the Balkans. On Bill Clinton's team (from 1993 to 2001), he worked at the State Department, coordinating policy regarding the former Yugoslavia, as well as on “war crimes” in the region.
The publication believes that these five sent by Joe Biden to the Balkans indicate serious US intentions towards the region.
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