KK Igokea

Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic wrote on Instagram on Monday that a Bosnian company had discussed with officials at the Iranian embassy in Sarajevo the possibility of selling aluminium oxide powder to Tehran in breach of US and EU sanctions.

But the day-to-day headlines obscure a bigger, simpler truth.

Dodik remains a threat to the central feature of the Dayton Peace Accords - peace in Bosnia, and thus the whole of the Western Balkans - because for a decade and a half he has faced virtually no meaningful consequence for his increasingly extremist positions.

Inaction should shame Europe

However, this analysis misses the broader strategic picture - that the external scaffolding supporting the Bosnian state has all but collapsed, creating circumstances in which the RS can break away from Bosnia.

Battle of wills that began at Dayton:

Signing the Dayton Agreement. Photo: Wikimedia commons/NATO

Namely, according to Govedarica, Milo Djukanovic warned a Serb member of the BiH Presidency that all members of his party and him personally would banned from entering Montenegro if the Republika Srpska Parliament adopts the Declaration on the Position of Serbs in Montenegro.

Amid an ongoing dispute over a Constitutional Court ruling that has angered Bosnian Serb politicians, Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the state presidency, has stopped Bosnia from signing up to a status agreement with the European Union border agency, Frontex.

Back to Crisis

Things were beginning to look pleasantly boring in Bosnia after the recent formation of the central government in December, after which many political analysts and Bosnian citizens breathed a sigh of relief. But the respite from crisis was sadly short-lived in Bosnia.

He stressed that the Republika Srpska Parliament is a key venue for all decisions and that only it can speak on behalf of the people.
"We must not hesitate to make decisions that are important to our future. This time, we are serious and we will not accept any other direction," Dodik said.

According to Vucic, the dialogue was moving towards a compromise solution.
"It was done to say that Serbia was going out of dialogue and that any plan for Serbia to gain something would be overthrown", Vucic explained on TV Happy show "Cyrillic" last night.

Pre-election fever was in the air of the Balkans too, as politicians in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia geared up for elections taking place over the year.

As tough and unpopular economic and social reforms hung Bosnia's politicians like a Sword of Damocles, they jealously watched Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo stealing attention with their respective crises.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has repeated demands for a referendum on the status of the Serb-led entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.