The chairperson of the BiH House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Dusanka Majkic, has said that as of late, the Committee has been receiving an increased number of requests for ratification of agreements on cooperation between BiH and Saudi Arabia in various fields, to which public sharply reacted not only in Republika Srpska but in the FBiH as well.
Majkic has told SRNA that the public sharply reacted to the signing of a memorandum of understanding and educational and scientific cooperation between the BiH Council of Ministers and the Government of Saudi Arabia and that the Commission postponed giving its approval to the memorandum until the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs presents more serious arguments for its ratification.
“What the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs cited as an argument for signing the memorandum is not enough for it to be supported. We will wait for them to forward serious arguments in order to vote on it,” Majkic has said.
According to her, the memorandum pertains to educational and scientific cooperation, and this means that BiH should realise cooperation in these two important areas with the country which many people consider to be a centre for the development of salafi movements.
She has said that Saudi Arabia sent salafis to BiH during the war and that it is accused that there is a salafi training centre in the King Fahd Mosque in Sarajevo.
Majkic has said that the EU warned that Saudi Arabia is radicalising Bosniaks, adding that this was obviously not taken seriously by BiH and that BiH is not paying attention to it, which means deterioration in the security sector.
“Instead of concluding agreements in the area of education and science with European countries, EU member states, we are getting closer to Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” Majkic has said.
According to her, Republika Srpska was not consulted again about the signing of this memorandum.
“It is said that Republika Srpska gave its approval in 2009, but that time and the present time are not the same when it comes to information about Wahhabism. The occurrence of the Wahhabi movement in 2009 was not as visible as it is today. Republika Srpska was not consulted again and now its consent is needed,” Majkic has said.
Source: Srna