Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency member Mladen Ivanic said that the original agreement between the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Islamic Community in Bosnia is unacceptable to him.

He told the N1 reporter Milica Vucetic that he does not know why the Islamic Community attacked him in their announcement, in spite of his personal efforts that the agreement be signed.

“I would like to remind you that, on several occasions, I publically said that some formulations which were exclusive or were inapplicable in Bosnia, have been changed. I was astonished by the fact that the Islamic Community had backed off from the things we agreed on, I agreed on, and that they had returned to their previous proposal,” Ivanic said. “I won’t go into too many details, but this type of an agreement which was submitted to us by the Council of Ministers in 2015 is unacceptable to me. The one we agreed on, which was largely improved, is acceptable to me.”

Three days after the last Bosnian Presidency session, the Islamic Community in Bosnia reacted to Ivanic’s statements.

“Bosnian Presidency member Mladen Ivanic made a number of inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims, exaggerating or even maliciously expressing his views and interpretations of provisions of the agreement, contrary to what was written in the agreement, thus creating conditions for political games and further distrust among the peoples and citizens of Bosnia. Incorporating the agreement into the agenda of the Presidency session was a way for all three members of the Presidency to state their views and make any observations and discuss them within the established procedure,” said the Islamic Community in Bosnia.

During the recent Presidency session, the Croat and the Serb member of the Presidency voted against the agreement being placed on the session agenda at the request of the Bosniak Presidency member. The Bosniak member and Chairman of the Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic said then that he was outvoted in an attempt to place the agreement between the state and the Islamic community onto the agenda, thus making this the only religious community in Bosnia that does not have a defined agreement with the state.

The agreement would define the legal relations between the state and the Islamic Community in Bosnia, and would further clarify the rights of Bosnian Muslims in Bosnia’s institutions.