Blic: Three reasons Serbia is being pressured by the United States of America

SManalysis

The Blic newspaper listed three reasons for the growing US pressure on our country

SOURCE: TANJUG MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019

The situation got especially complicated after the statements of Matthew Palmer, State Department Special Envoy for the Western Balkans.

Concerns over the deployment and acquisition of Russian weapons, the EU's poor moves, especially over its refusal to set a start date for talks with Albania and North Macedonia, and a clash between the State Department, represented by Matthew Palmer and the White House, represented by Richard Grenell, are three reasons for which the United States is exerting stronger pressure on Serbia, writes "Blic" in its Monday edition.

Palmer's biggest problem is Grenell. Now it's a practical contest between the two, or rather between the administration - the State Department he represents, and the White House, that is, Grenell, who is Trump's man who will do more on the Kosovo issue, a diplomatic source from Washington informs "Blic".

He warns, according to the newspaper, that the pressures on Serbia are yet to be expected.

We can see the change of course and the increased pressure in recent weeks, which coincided with Grenell's appointment and then his first official visit to the region.

"Blic" reports that a Berlin source learns that Ambassador Grenell plans to invite President Aleksandar Vucic to listen carefully to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's address in Berlin this week on a forum dedicated to peace and stability.

The newspaper notes that Americans find it concerning when they read that Serbia plans to acquire the mighty S-300 or S-400 from Russia, and recalls that Palmer, among other things, noted that "the US is concerned about the presence of Russian military equipment in Serbia".

His unusually harsh statements, or rather threats, surprised a part of the Serbian public, but only those who have little knowledge of internal relations within the US administration, that is, the problems with in the relations between the State Department - White House, the paper concludes.