Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar today described as offensive and unacceptable the statements of Croatian President Zoran Milanović and accused him of antisemitism.
“The offensive rhetoric of the Croatian president is unacceptable. His speech filled with hatred about Israel and Zionism reflects an antisemitic approach,” Sa’ar wrote on the network X.
He reacted in this way to the statement of the Croatian president who sharply criticized the Israeli ambassador in Zagreb Gary Koren for saying that Croatia should check the Iranian embassy over possible terrorism.
“Croatia is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and has committed to opposing antisemitism. The president has betrayed those commitments,” the Israeli minister wrote.
On Wednesday Milanović sharply criticized the Israeli ambassador in Zagreb for saying that Croatia should check the Iranian embassy over possible terrorism, and the ambassador was summoned for talks in the office of the president.
“We will not accept other people’s infections and bacilli in Croatia, neither Iranian nor Israeli. The gentlemen should behave accordingly, and if they will not, that means the Government tolerates them,” Milanović told reporters in Zagreb.
Milanović added that “that official from Tel Aviv practically said that it is a terrorist den in the middle of Zagreb in the Iranian embassy” and assessed that it is about disturbing the Croatian public.
“Iran really, when it comes to the Middle East, like Israel, is inclined to certain terrorist methods. What is the killing in Gaza if not terrorism and what is the abuse by Israeli soldiers, krav maga fighters, if not terrorism. However, when it comes to Europe, Iran in Europe does not act in a terrorist way, at least as far as I know,” the Croatian president pointed out.
“This is, brother, Zagreb, not Tel Aviv,” Milanović told the ambassador of Israel.
The Croatian president repeated that Iran is a member of the UN and that it was, as he emphasized, attacked without a UN mandate.
The President of Croatia Zoran Milanović, who in the presidential elections was twice elected as a candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party, previously assessed in reaction to the American-Israeli attack on Iran that “every unilateral use of military force that violates international law and order is dangerous because it threatens peace and global security not only today, but also in the future”.
As in many other cases, President Milanović and the government led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who is also the president of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, do not have a unified position in the case of the attack on Iran. Unlike the president, officials from the government when speaking about the American-Israeli attack emphasize Iran’s responsibility.
Milanović has also repeatedly called on the government to recognize Palestine and at the same time sharply condemned attacks by the Israeli army on civilians in Gaza. He called the policy of the Israeli authorities “bullying” and “criminal”.
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Source Danas; Foto: Reuters, ATA Images