However, as the conflict progressed, the JNA fell under Serb control. When the embargo was imposed, only the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), which was believed to be neutral, had significant supplies of heavy weapons. The resolution imposed an international arms embargo on all Yugoslav territories, in an effort to prevent escalating violence. Background Īt the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 713 on September 25, 1991. The conflict was finally brought to an end in 1995 by the Dayton Agreement, following the NATO bombing of Bosnian Serb Army positions. Several important political figures had called for military intervention, including US Senator Bob Dole and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
In 1994, the US Congress called for the arms embargo to be lifted, but Clinton now opposed the idea. No one could be confident that deeper and deeper involvement of American forces would lead to a quick and successful finish. US opinion was still shaped by the Vietnam Syndrome against endless wars and the ugly memories of the Vietnam quagmire. Germany and Italy likewise were hostile.Īs Christopher returned to Washington, DC, he discovered that US support had evaporated as well and that lift and strike was dead. Russian President Boris Yeltsin thought that peace negotiations were on the brink of settlement and so should not be interrupted. French President François Mitterrand said that the Serbs would retaliate against French troops in UNPROFOR, the UN force. British Prime Minister John Major told Christopher that his government would fall if he tried to lift the embargo. Īfter Clinton was elected, he sent newly-appointed Secretary of State Warren Christopher to visit European governments in May 1993 in an attempt to persuade them to support the strategy, Christopher met with very strong refusals from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. After initially opposing the policy, Bill Clinton adopted it as a part of his 1992 presidential campaign platform in an effort to distance himself from Bush on foreign policy. Bush's presidency in the summer of 1992 by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović, and later adopted by several US senators, including Joseph Biden. The policy had been initially suggested during George H. If the Bosnian Serbs tried to stop that move, the United States Air Force and United States Navy would "strike" hard at them. The idea was to "lift" a United Nations arms embargo on both sides to provide the poorly-armed Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) with high-powered modern American weapons, thus balancing the conflict. It was never enacted because massive opposition in Europe and the US killed the proposal and even Clinton changed his mind. Lift and strike was the name of a proposed policy by the Bill Clinton administration in 1993 in an attempt to improve the chances of a political settlement in the Bosnian War.
0 kommentar(er)
