The new state-level government is initiating the "beheading of the dragon", meaning – initiating the procedure to appoint the new head of Bosnia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA), the leader of the People and Justice (NIP) party and Bosnia’s newly elected Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic told N1 Wednesday evening.

“All the serious candidates are in the game – their names are mostly not in the media. Some were suggested early on. Tonight, another partnership meeting was held with people from Social Democratic Party (SDP). People from the profession and the international community are doing the last consultations in order to find the right solution. It is a tactical matter that we will keep under control until the end. One of those names that were leaked to the public and were seriously in circulation experienced terrible pressures. These people who are trying to stay in power will do everything to intimidate, buy [our candidates], etc. We made a small mistake once, it won't happen again,” Konakovic told N1.

He noted that he made a commitment to “serious people, experts, that we wouldn’t cause problems for what needs to be done”.

“This is the beheading of the dragon. All the brutal attacks on political opponents, pranks, pressures on the prosecutor's offices were initiated from the OSA, by order of the Democratic Action Party (SDA),” Konakovic said.

He claimed that the SDA had allegedly interfered with the investigations of some murders that are still being talked about.

“I will publish the evidence for everything we find, as I have done so thus far, and I hope that the prosecutors’ offices will do the same after they are relieved of the pressure of the OSA. I hope that the OSA will not raid and coerce the next cantonal prosecutor and that they will complete the work that BiH has been waiting for, for the past two decades,” the newly-appointed Foreign Minister said.

Noted that the new Government “will not take revenge” against the parties that previously formed the Government.

“It’s not my or anybody else's personal staff [the OSA management], they are neither British nor American. We will never be interested in where our political opponents are having their coffee. We are interested in the protection of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions,” Konakovic concluded.

Speaking about his engagement following the appointment to the office, he said that Bosnia is “unrecognizable” in Brussels, Washington, Vienna, Paris, the East, etc., and that he will work to correct this but that he considers the relationship between BiH and Turkey to be particularly important. 

“I'm going to Antalya in March to advocate for an institutional relationship between Turkey and BiH, not a private one at all. Turkey is our important strategic partner and I have emotions when I go to Istanbul, but I know what the priorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina are and the relationship between Turkey and Bosnia will be institutional. It doesn't bother me and I think it's good that [SDA leader Bakir] Izetbegovic has one of the world's biggest leaders [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] on speed dial, but it bothers me that everything ended in a private relationship,” he stressed. 

The BiH Foreign Minister said that special attention will be paid to the BiH diaspora and they have already started working on it. 

“The regional tour is coming soon,” he announces. 

First, he will go to Croatia, and then to Serbia where he will meet with the BiH diaspora and talk to them, noting that this will be his practice where ever he goes.