A bipartisan group of senior U.S. lawmakers has urged the administration of President Donald Trump to reinstate sanctions against officials of Republika Srpska (RS), which were lifted in October 2025.
The request comes after authorities in Republika Srpska began questioning former employees and associates of the Srebrenica Memorial Center in Potočari, who had worked on a report addressing the denial of the genocide.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that current and former employees, as well as associates of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, have been summoned for questioning,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement published exclusively by the U.S. media outlet Semafor.
The statement was signed by a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives from both political parties, including Jeanne Shaheen, Roger Wicker, Chuck Grassley, Dick Durbin, Bill Keating, and Mike Turner.
The lawmakers called on the Trump administration to enforce provisions of U.S. defense legislation that allow for sanctions against individuals whom the U.S. president determines pose a threat to the security, stability, or territorial integrity of countries in the Western Balkans.
The White House and the U.S. Department of State have not yet commented on the request.
According to Semafor, relations between Washington and Banja Luka have undergone unusual shifts in recent months. Last year, the U.S. administration lifted sanctions against SNSD leader Milorad Dodik and several of his associates.
At the same time, authorities in Republika Srpska have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying efforts in Washington aimed at strengthening ties with the Trump administration. Dodik recently stated that these efforts encourage them to say that “Republika Srpska comes first.”
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Jim O’Brien criticized the current administration’s approach toward the Western Balkans.
“You have a situation where the entity in whose name the genocide was committed has a financial and political interest in being very close to this administration. I suspect this is why the administration is hesitant to support statements that remind people of wartime violence, particularly the genocide in Srebrenica,” O’Brien said.
Meanwhile, according to the report, the United States and international partners remain at an impasse over the appointment of a successor to the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Washington had previously called for the resignation of the current representative and proposed the appointment of Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi.
Analysts in Washington warn that political uncertainty in Bosnia and Herzegovina could also have economic consequences, potentially putting at risk a strategic oil pipeline project worth approximately $1 billion, which is expected to be operated by a U.S.-linked company associated with President Trump.
