Dacic: Croatia's expulsion of Serbian consul not reciprocity

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday Croatia's recent decision to expel a Serbian consul in Zagreb was not a matter of reciprocity as the diplomat - who had only taken office in September - had not violated the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations in any way.

Zagreb's move came a day after the Serbian MFA declared Hrvoje Snajder, first secretary at the Croatian embassy in Belgrade, a persona non grata over gross violations of the convention.

In an appearance on Happy TV, Dacic reiterated that Croatian security agencies had been informed by Belgrade that recalling Snajder would be the best course of action but that Zagreb had done nothing about the issue.

"This is not about someone who is a representative of a security agency, but someone who is posing as a diplomat while simply doing something that is contrary to the Vienna convention. It is not his job to decide who he is going to spy on - in my office, for instance," Dacic explained.

He said similar things had happened before but had been resolved in a different way.

"Agencies have their representatives in certain states, and they are official representatives. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not deal with those issues. We take actions based on correspondence from security agencies," Dacic said.

Dacic recently said Snajder had engaged in "affairs that are not the job of a diplomat" and that, despite warnings from Belgrade and evidence of his actions, Zagreb had taken no action about this.