Bosniak leader: Six times more French left to fight in Syria than Bosnians

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French President Emmanuel Macron made a number of groundless statements on account of Bosnia and NATO, Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic said on Friday regarding the French President's claims that Bosnia is a ticking time-bomb and that NATO is brain-dead.

“The latest events in connection to the withholding of the EU candidate status to Northern Macedonia and Albania were a negative message. Macron who had a couple of harsh statements regarding NATO and Bosnia had a role in them. His statements were harsh and groundless,” Bakir Izetbegovic said. “Five to six times more fighters from France left for Syrian battlefields than it did from Bosnia. We're dealing with this issue. We're a member of the Coalition and no Bosnian left the country (to fight abroad) in the past four years. Seven persons returned, of which one returned this year. It's safe to say that we were coping well with this problem, and Macron's claims are only reactivating it. It's not fair and its groundless.”

According to him, the EU integration blockade and questioning of NATO is not what Bosnia expected from France.

“We hope the French politics will get back in line with the politics of its earlier presidents,” he said.

In a recently published interview with The Economist, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Bosnia is a ticking time-bomb on the border with Croatia, referring to Bosnian nationals who left the country to fight in Middle Eastern battlefields.