Bosnia Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic has a “specific” relation with the main Bosnian Croat party, the HDZ BiH, and this has obviously spilt over to his relation with the ruling HDZ party in Croatia, said Bosnian Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak commenting on the latest diplomatic bickering between the two country's senior officials over the last weekend.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the President of Croatia and the HDZ's top member, accused Komsic of “anti-Croatian rhetoric” and being an “illegitimate representative” of Bosnian Croats, saying that he was “imposed” on that ethnic group, which he represents in the Presidency.

Grabar-Kitarovic's statement came a day after the Bosnia Presidency Chairman met a UN official in New York and spoke about denial of genocide in the region, mentioning among other things the denial of the WWII genocide against the Jews, Serbs and Roma in Croatia by some individuals.

Responding to this statement, the President of Croatia said Komsic was an irrelevant interlocutor in the international relations.

“There is a specific relationship between Komsic and the HDZ and apparently this kind of relationship is slowly spilling over to the relations with the HDZ in Croatia,” said FM Crnadak commenting on the issue in N1's programme.

“And one needs to keep in mind that the election campaign in Croatia is ongoing and when you sum up everything you get this kind of statements,” he added.

The Presidency Chairman's Cabinet issued a new statement on Sunday, stressing that Komsic's words from the meeting with UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng were misinterpreted by Croatian media.

Komsic never told the UN's Dieng that Croatia and its government deny the WWII genocide that the Nazi-aligned Independent State of Croatia (NDH) committed against the Serbs, Roma and Jews but that some individuals in Croatia do, the Presidency's statement clarified.

“With this in mind, the Office of the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina believes the HINA news agency should apologise to the citizens of the Republic of Croatia because of the accusation they tried to attribute to the Chairman of Bosnia’s Presidency, Zeljko Komsic,” the press release said.

Komsic, who was a candidate of the left-wing Democratic Front (DF) in the 2018 general election defeated his main opponent, the HDZ BiH's leader and candidate Dragan Covic, in the run for the Bosnia's tripartite Presidency.

The HDZ BiH and its supporters never approved of Komsic's appointment, saying that he was elected mostly thanks to the votes of Bosniaks, hence is an illegitimate representative of Croats.