US Ambassador to Croatia Robert Kohorst on Tuesday welcomed Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic's admission that she was wrong to say that the salute "For the Homeland Ready", used by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in Croatia during World War II, was a Croatian historical greeting.

“We applaud recent statements by President Grabar-Kitarovic regarding the use of divisive speech in Croatia,” Kohorst wrote on his Twitter account.

The salute, today seen as controversial by the mainstream public, was officially used during the Croatian fascist Ustasha regime during World War II. It was revived and used by some Croatian paramilitaries in the 1990s, and is still in use by a few modern-day right-wing and nationalist groups.

“While all countries must protect free speech and political expression, there are some phrases which have no place in modern society,” Kohorst said on Tuesday.

At a press conference she held on Saturday to mark four years in office as President, Grabar-Kitarovic admitted she had made a mistake when she described the salute “For the Homeland Ready” as a historical Croatian greeting.

“I accept what historians have said, that it is not a historical Croatian greeting. But the point of my statement was not that part of the sentence, but that it (the salute) is compromised and unacceptable,” the president said this past Saturday, noting that she was wrong to have trusted her advisors on the issue.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.