Bosnias Serb Republic appoints interim president, seals Dodiks departure from post

SARAJEVO (GWN) -The parliament of Bosnia’s Serb Republic appointed Ana Trisic Babic as an interim president on Saturday, acknowledging formally for the first time that former President Milorad Dodik is stepping apart after a state court banned him from politics.

Trisic Babic, Dodik’s close ally, will maintain the place for one month until new presidential elections are held in the Serb Republic on November 23.

The parliament also annulled a sequence of separatist legal guidelines that have been handed over the past 12 months after Dodik had been indicted for defying selections of the worldwide envoy and the constitutional court.

Dodik, a pro-Russian nationalist who needs the Serb Republic to secede and be part of Serbia, had so far refused to step down and continued to carry out duties and journey overseas in the capability of president. He is interesting the state court’s verdict at the constitutional court.

Dodik said that despite the parliament vote on Saturday, the Serb Republic won’t change its insurance policies, with secession remaining his final objective. But he had to make the transfer in coordination with international companions, Dodik said.

The U.S. State Department welcomed Saturday’s transfer, saying it was the consequence of U.S.-led efforts “to defuse the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

“The United States welcomes today’s Republika Srpska National Assembly (RSNA) action that affirms stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will also chart a course for constructive partnership with the United States based on mutual interests, economic potential, and shared prosperity,” State Department Senior Bureau Official for European and Eurasian Affairs Brendan Hanrahan said in a assertion to GWN.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it had eliminated 4 Dodik allies from a sanctions listing, in a transfer praised by Dodik who has been campaigning to get U.S. sanctions against himself lifted.

He has been sanctioned by the U.S. and Britain for obstructing the phrases of the Dayton peace deal that ended Bosnia’s battle in the Nineteen Nineties, as effectively as by a number of European international locations that say his separatist insurance policies endanger peace and stability in Bosnia.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Franklin Paul and Sergio Non)