ZAGREB, January 11, 2019 – Živi Zid president Ivan Sinčić said on Friday Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krstičević was primarily responsible for the failed purchase of Israeli F-16 fighter jets and should resign, adding that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković was also responsible for "holding the ladder."
Krstičević worked with Israelis in the King ICT company and had to know how this job is done and should not have put Croatia in such an embarrassing situation, Sinčić told reporters.
Asked to comment on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović decision to convene the Defence Council over the failed aircraft purchase, he said that instead of acting preventively with the personnel and bodies at her disposal, she was convening a meeting when the deal had fallen through.
She is the supreme commander of the armed forces, has personnel and contacts abroad, she was a diplomat, including in the US, she knows many people and should have obtained adequate information and known the protocol of buying fighter jets, and she should have warned the government about the risks and advised against the deal, said Sinčić.
He also commented on the fact that Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivan Del Vechio and the president of the HDZ BiH Bosnian Croat party, Dragan Čović, had recently attended a ceremony marking the unconstitutionally declared day of BiH's Serb entity Republika Srpska.
Sinčić said the policy of Croatia's ruling HDZ party regarding BiH was a wrong and hypocritical policy of cooperation with someone one should not cooperate with.
Živi Zid MP Ivan Pernar said Čović had formed an alliance with Milorad Dodik, the incumbent chairman of the BiH Presidency, who Pernar said was not a Croatian ally and had given his consent to a BiH lawsuit against Croatia. He said attending a ceremony marking the day of an entity created on the disappearance of Croats from northern BiH said more than enough about the HDZ's love for Croats in BiH.
More news on the Živi Zid party can be found in our Politics section.
