February 23, 1996
Web posted at: 11:15 p.m. EST (0415 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin lifted all sanctions against the Bosnian Serb republic Friday, prompting criticism from the United States.
Through his press service, Yeltsin told the Security Council Friday that he arrived at the decision "proceeding from the fact that the Bosnian Serbs had complied with conditions set by the United Nations resolution of November 22, 1995."
Russia is the first nation to drop U.N.-imposed sanctions. A U.S. spokesman called the action "premature," though conditions for suspending the sanctions are nearly completed.
At a press conference after a closed-door Security Council meeting at the U.N. Friday, Russian U.N. envoy Sergei Lavrov explained Russia's position. "We announced in the council that since the conditions for suspending the sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs, as they were described in resolution 1022, had been fulfilled some time ago ... this meant the sanctions had automatically been suspended."
Lavrov also cited a January 23 letter to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali from NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana saying that "the parties have complied with the requirement to withdraw their forces from the zones of separation" in Bosnia.
But U.S. mission spokesman James Rubin said at the same press conference that the Security Council had received a subsequent letter from Solana explaining that the zones of separation referred to in his letter were not the zones based on new inter-ethnic boundaries that Washington deems fulfill the requirement for suspending U.N. sanctions.
"Therefore, we regard this as premature," Rubin added, but he indicated that it would not be a major concern because a letter was expected soon from NATO confirming that the Bosnian Serbs had withdrawn to the zone of separation along the new inter-ethnic boundary specified in last November's Dayton peace accord.
Diplomats said the United States and Russia are at odds over a matter of interpretation. Russia sees the zones of separation as those established once a Bosnia cease-fire went into effect, and the United States believes them to be new zones of separation set up after an inter-ethnic exchange of territory.
The U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions against Belgrade in November but will keep them in place in Bosnian Serb areas until the Bosnian Serbs withdraw to buffer zones.
Yeltsin's government has been criticized by Communists as well as other hard-liners for its failure to come to the aid of the Serbs, who are considered Russia's traditional ally and Orthodox brethren.
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