Vucic: I will offer US formal statement on NIS, I am certain it will grant licence

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Friday he planned to offer a formal statement to the US regarding Serbia's Russian majority-owned oil company NIS - which is under US sanctions - and said he believed the US would understand Serbia's position and grant NIS a licence that would enable it to continue to operate.

In an interview for Informer TV, Vucic said people needed not worry about the situation and that he would make the formal statement on Sunday and address the public as early as on Sunday or Monday.

He said he believed the situation regarding NIS would be alright as the US side had received letters from eminent companies and because talks about a transfer of ownership of the company were underway.

"I am certain America will accept my formal statement and be accommodating to us," he said, adding that he was constantly checking his phone as he was expecting more news.

Vucic also said that "the Americans cannot refuse" an offer he would make "if they want to demonstrate the attitude of someone who is a partner of Serbia."

Vucic: "Sarajevo safari" accusations a part of doctrine for destroying Serbia

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday accusations levied against him over his alleged involvement in the so-called "Sarajevo safari" scandal were a part of a doctrine and a strategy aimed at bringing Serbia to a collapse.

Commenting on the accusations, made by Croatian journalist Domagoj Margetic - who has said he had also reported Vucic to prosecutors in Milan who were allegedly investigating the scandal - Vucic said that, to him, the accusations were not unexpected.

"They have a doctrine, it is a doctrinary strategy for bringing the Serbian state to a collapse and, in that sense, toppling Vucic is the priority goal," Vucic told Informer TV in an interview. He added that more than 25,000 negative news stories had been published about him in Croatian media outlets in the past year, against just 50 neutral stories and no positive ones whatsoever.

He also said he had never carried a sniper in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he had never heard of any kind of "safari."

"But that does not matter. I did not have a gun - even when I came and asked: 'Can I be with you?' they told me: 'Go back, kid, we need a journalist, someone who speaks English.' That narrative is so nonsensical and everyone knows that, I have footage and witnesses, and what they say is a gun was a camera stand, I was carrying it for the camera operator," Vucic said.