Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik has dismissed U.S. sanctions imposed against him, and called on Bosnia-Herzegovina’s government to declare the U.S. ambassador persona non grata.
The U.S. Treasury Department on January 17 announced sanctions against Dodik, the president of Bosnia's autonomous Republika Srpska entity, for actively obstructing efforts to implement the 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the Bosnian war.
Speaking in Banja Luka on January 18, Dodik said he was "proud" of being blacklisted.
He said the sanctions prove he was "not ready to trade off with the interests of Republika Srpska."
Dodik said the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Maureen Cormack, was "an enemy of the Serbs" and unwelcome in Republika Srpska.
He also called on Bosnia’s Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak to declare Cormack persona non grata across all of Bosnia.
Dodik said he thinks his relationship with Washington will improve after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
