Ivo Sanader’s nine-day American tour, which has just begun, seems to be doomed to failure due to the restraint displayed by George W. Bush’s government. Not a single high-ranking US official has intended to receive Sanader, our diplomacy has not organized meetings with representatives of the African nations before the UN, whose votes are required if we want to enter into the Security Council in 2008. Philadelphia University, which is to grant the Croatian Premier an honorary Ph.D. is a second-rate semi-anonymous university which should improve the impression of the unsuccessful mission by the state leadership in the United States. Nacional has received confirmation of this information from several high ranking diplomatic and political sources.

The American administration is exceptionally disappointed with Sanader and his associates, simply because they feel that the current Croatian government has betrayed them. The Americans of course will not ever admit this, however, unofficial information and their actions confirm a strong step away from the HDZ government. To recall, at the time of the US-British intervention in Iraq, HDZ, then in opposition, was the only relevant party to support the war which unfolded without approval by the UN. Ivo Sanader and Miomir Žužul did not implicitly reject the possibility of sending Croatian troops to Iraq. During his January visit to Washington, Žužul promised that Croatia would send troops to Iraq, as well as sign Article 98 on the non-extradition of American soldiers to the International Criminal Court. After only a few months, their conduct has changed completely and today no one is seriously considering sending even medical units to a country where dozens of civilians and soldiers are killed daily.

The US administration does not tolerate such conduct, and has decided to ignore the Croatian Premier. Žužul’s associates are still trying to get a formal meeting with Colin Powell, which is the maximum bilateral meeting that can be expected with the American side. Sanader will meet informally with Bush on two occasions, however, the circumstances of these meetings has caused much snickering among the experienced diplomats in Zagreb.

The US president will again this year organize a reception for foreign delegations in New York, which concretely means that the heads of 195 states stand in line and wait about 90 minutes to shake hands with the leader of the world’s only superpower. The representatives of the more important countries receive about a minute in the company of the US President, while the less important, such as Sanader, have about 20-30 second to shake hands with the President. The second meeting will be during the UN’s formal dinner for presidents and premiers of member-states of that organization. And here the protocol is relentless and for the majority of those gathered, the hierarchy is strict and awkward. There is Table 1, where the US president and his colleagues from the leading world nations, while Table 2 is where the remaining delegates are seated, including the Croatian delegation. Here Sanader will also have the opportunity to come into contact with Bush, and for an appropriate photo session, however, this is in no way a bilateral meeting.

Furthermore, since coming to power 10 months ago, HDZ has had only a few sporadic meetings at the highest levels. This spring in Washington, seven former Communist national joined NATO, and on that occasion, George W. Bush courteously shook hands and was photographed with the Premiers of Macedonia, Croatia and Albania, however no official talks were held at the highest level. Several months earlier in Washington, Miomir Žužul met for 15 minutes with Colin Powell. According to information from one of the participants, this meeting consisted of Powell’s cold list of demands: from signing Article 98 to cooperation with the Hague. Donald Rumsfeld also visited Zagreb on his tour, however, no advancement was achieved in international relations between the two states during this visit.

Those well acquainted with American-Croatian relations confirmed for Nacional that at this time, the most important issue for Washington is Croatia’s signing of Article 98 on non-extradition of Americans to the international court. Sanader and Žužul gave positive indications on behalf of the Croatian government, however, on arriving home they were met with harsh opposition from the public, remaining parties and President Mesić. These all claimed that it is impermissible to allow American soldiers to avoid being tried if they committed a war crime, while the leading Croatian officers are sitting in the Hague for the same reason. The position of the HDZ government has been made more difficult in that support for the US request has come from only a handful of European states, and unquestionable signals have been received from the EU that Croatia’s support for Article 98 would likely mean closing the door to Brussels. However, just how the US took Croatia’s withdrawal of its promise will now be seen on Premier Sanader’s current US tour, as well as in last week’s statement made by George W. Bush at the acceptance of the diplomatic credentials of the new Croatian Ambassador in Washington.

The US President has once again called upon Croatia to become militarily involved in Iraq, now that the units of many countries which originally joined the Americans are going home. Certain diplomats have taken this explicit demand by Bush as clear pressure, considering that under normal circumstances, lower ranked members of the administration are usually the ones to make such requests. Inasmuch, the Americans are well aware that HV will certainly not go to Iraq as there is a broad consensus on that point in Croatia. The most important representative of this consensus is President Mesić, who has firmly stated since the beginning of the war in Iraq that military involvement is acceptable only under the UN.

The main authors of this opposition of sending troops to Iraq no longer work in the Office of the President. Those were Tomislav Jakić, Mesić’s former foreign policy advisor and Željko Bagić, former Chef du Cabinet. These two men were authors of the document which stated that the Croatian military would not be sent to Iraq without a UN Security Resolution, less due to possible losses in the field and much more due to the fact that Croatia would be more subject to the danger of terrorist attacks. Though at the time, Mesić was in support of sending HV to combat, today even Mesić’s opponents have admitted his excellent judgment on this issue. However, the two men who strongly influenced the President have since been forgotten, even though strong pressure was applied on Mesić to remove them. One witness told Nacional last week that the former foreign policy advisor so irritated then Premier Ivica Račan, that on one occasion the Premier told Mesić, “Get rid of Jakić and I’ll support you in the presidential elections.”

The main indicator is that Mesić was in the right concerning the security situation in Croatia. Foreign intelligence agents – primarily American and German – have commented several times in the past year on their surprise at the excellent monitoring of potential terrorists. It also helps that Croatia is a small country, but despite this, intelligence work is very difficult. All the main border crossings and airports have been covered, and at exactly noon every day, a diskette arrives from the POA headquarters with the names of all foreign citizens registered in Croatian hotels. Background checks are conducted in the shortest possible timeframe and to date, according to a well informed intelligence source, not a single mistake has been made.

Despite all these strong arguments, the Americans have decided to continue their pressures against the Croatian government. Washington knows Mesić’s position very well and even though he is not well liked, they do admit to his consistency. Ivo Sanader is not as lucky, as he first made a promise and then withdrew it, thinking that the entire situation could be worked out with diplomatic equilibrium. However, when talking about the administration of the world’s most powerful country, this is not possible. Which is why in nine days time, instead of being received by the highest ranking US officials and conducting concrete talks on strategic and economic topics, the Croatian delegation and Premier will receive an honorary Ph.D. from a marginal university, meet with the Premiers of Serbia and Montenegro, Albania and Portugal, representatives of the Croatian emigrants and finally, attend one more university: Duquesne University where they will watch a performance by the local tambura orchestra.

Though it is expected that the Croatian delegation will create a big show over the honorary Ph.D. to be granted to Ivo Sanader from Philadelphia University, Nacional’s source close to the Foreign Minister has stated that this is just another clumsily carried out lobbying task by Foreign Minister Miomir Žužul. Philadelphia is a nondescript American university, which evolved out of an ordinary textile college. According to Nacional’s source, this is not the first time that Minister Žužul has been ‘selling fog’ and presenting it as a great work. Not too long ago, he falsely presented himself as a NATO advisor while traveling through the countries of the region and visiting the Croatian embassies.

In autumn 2003, one high ranking official in the former government decided to personally check out the influence of Minister Žužul in NATO circles. This was the time that he preserved with his story of being a political advisor in NATO. At a gathering, our source asked then NATO General Secretary George Robertson and his assistant for political affairs Gunter Altenburder if they knew the gentleman he pointed out – Žužul. They responded that they had never seen or heard of him before.