By Daria Sito-Sucic
SARAJEVO, June 3 (Reuters) – The body overseeing Bosnia’s peace process meets on Wednesday to choose a new envoy to replace Germany’s Christian Schmidt, who quit under what he said was “enormous” U.S. pressure.
Schmidt, appointed in 2021, resigned unexpectedly in May from the Office of the High Representative, which monitors the implementation of the U.S.-backed Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995.
His departure comes at a fragile time for Bosnia, which remains deeply divided along ethnic lines. The country has enjoyed strong backing from Washington, but the U.S. State Department in a May report on the Western Balkans signalled a shift in policy towards more commercial terms, stressing “mutually beneficial partnerships”, including through energy projects.
“The Americans want a High Representative who will not stand in the way,” said Kurt Bassuener, the co-founder and senior associate of the Democratization Policy Council think tank.
The U.S. embassy in Sarajevo and the U.S. State Department did not immediately provide comment.
The Peace Implementation Council will meet on Wednesday and Thursday to decide on a successor, who will also play a role in determining Bosnia’s policies.
Frontrunners include veteran Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi and French diplomat Rene Troccaz, according to the investigative portal Istraga.ba and some analysts.
‘ENORMOUS AND SURPRISING PRESSURE’
Schmidt’s tenure was beset by tensions with Bosnian Serb leaders, who questioned his legality as he opposed their drive for secession of their autonomous region from Bosnia and its unification with Serbia.
He initially said that he was stepping down for personal reasons, but in late May he told German newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine that he was under “enormous and surprising pressure from the U.S.” to leave earlier than planned.
Several diplomats and analysts confirmed to Reuters that he had been under U.S. pressure for some time.
A U.S. analyst, who did not want to be named, linked the pressure to U.S. lobbyists close to President Donald Trump, who helped lift U.S. sanctions against Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik last October and who also reportedly lobbied for Schmidt’s departure.
However, one EU ambassador, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Schmidt was seen as being backed by former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.
“They see him as the remains of the old regime and wanted to get rid of him,” the ambassador said.
The role of the Office of the High Representative has expanded since it was first established and can now impose laws and remove some officials, but the U.S. said it now prefers a more limited mandate.
“The U.S.-led nation-building era has passed,” the State Department said in the May report. Washington policy in the region is about “stability and mutually beneficial partnerships.”
That includes U.S. backing for a gas pipeline to carry U.S. natural gas from an LNG terminal in Croatia to Bosnia. The project will be led by a U.S. company run by Jesse Binnall, a former Trump lawyer, and Joseph Flynn, the brother of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Edward McAllister and Sharon Singleton)
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