Vucic: Halting arms and ammo exports has resulted in internal, external pressure

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that, following a decision to halt exports of Serbian-made arms and ammunition, he was under major pressure to allow already agreed shipments to go through, but noted that Serbia would not deliver the shipments in spite of the pressure.

In the future, sales of arms and ammunition will be possible only with consent of the National Security Council, Vucic told reporters.

"As far as arms are concerned, the Ministry of Defence understood my order, but there are five institutions whose signatures are required. What follows now is an order from the National Security Council to the Ministry of Trade, which is the final (institution), that there is no ammunition going out anymore. That poses a serious problem to us because I have been under serious pressure since last evening, both externally and internally," Vucic said when asked to comment on an upsurge of verbal attacks against him following the decision to halt arms exports, as well as on reports that an Israeli Boeing 747 jet used for transporting ammunition had landed in Belgrade.

He added that no one was looking after Serbia and that, instead, everyone was looking to break his back because he did not have "two sides, but only the Serbian side."