Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday that part of the Israeli administration "reacted very brazenly and rudely" to his earlier statement that Israel "had lost his sympathy" because of the way it responded to the Hamas attack.

“When it comes to Palestine, I am in favour of an objective and balanced approach. I said what I said five days ago, and part of the Israeli administration reacted very brazenly and rudely to that,” Milanovic said at a press conference in Tirana after meeting with his Albanian counterpart Bajram Begaj.

“I understand them, they are not in an easy situation, but the rules are the same for everyone,” he added.

The spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, said earlier that Milanovic’s statement was “outrageous” and “conspicuous against the backdrop of the messages of support from international leaders who have expressed sympathy for the people of Israel after horrific images of Hamas’ barbaric terror attack were publicized all over the world.”

Milanovic emphasised that “20 more people said that after me, and the Irish prime minister before me”. He added: “I have been silent all these years and by being silent I actually approved everything that Israel was doing. Not that I have the right to say, but I have the obligation to say it.”

The Croatian president also said that the Palestinian people have the right to their own state, “which should have been respected a long time ago so there would not be many of these tragedies and horrors that we are seeing.”

He again criticised the display of the Israeli flag on the building of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. “That was unnecessary, a vast majority of Croatian citizens do not approve of that,” he said.

Croatia’s Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) has heightened its state of alert over terrorism after a radical Islamist killed two Swedes in Brussels, and Milanovic said that “this is good, you can never be careful enough, but we must not stop normal life without a good reason.”

He said that based on the information at hand, the Brussels attack was carried out by a member of the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

“We must be aware that not every incident of this kind is related to Palestine. ISIL has never highlighted the Palestinian issue as being important to them, they are interested in an Islamic State,” Milanovic said. “Anyone who does not beat and kill women is a heretic to them, including the Palestinians,” he added, pointing out that both the goal and the methods of that organisation are completely unacceptable.

On the other hand, “what the fighters for Palestinian freedom supposedly stand for is acceptable, their methods are not”.

“I condemned them and I will condemn them. I also ask that the rules be the same for everyone and that they be applied consistently, and not that the presidents of some countries such as Kosovo end their term in office and go to some kind of semi-prison in The Hague, that Croatian generals hang around The Hague for years. And what about the others?” Milanovic said.

Albania making steady progress without an appropriate response from the EU

On Wednesday, Milanovic began his two-day visit to Albania at the invitation of Albanian President Bajram Begaj. Speaking about the the country’s European membership prospects, the Croatian president said that Albania has been making steady progress “in every respect” for the past twenty years.

Despite this, “its progress has not been accompanied by adequate institutional reactions and responses from the EU”, Milanovic said, adding that it is absurd that Albania joined NATO together with Croatia in 2009 and has not made much progress on its European path.

Begaj said that Croatia is “one of the models” that Albania should follow on its way to the EU.

The Albanian president also said that Albania will support Croatia’s bid for non-permanent membership of the Security Council from 2030 to 2031, just as Croatia supported Albania for the period from 2022 to 2023.

Attack in Banjska

Both presidents referred to the attack by a Serbian paramilitary group on the Kosovo police in Banjska in the north of Kosovo in late September.

“After the terrorist attack by Hamas, it becomes more necessary for the EU and NATO to strongly discourage” such actions, Begaj said, adding that “after the terrorist attack in Banjska, things are no longer the same”.

Milanovic repeated that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has not yet given answers about the attack, although there is evidence that the attackers were trained at a military training ground in Serbia.

However, he emphasised that he does not support sanctions against Serbia because they “never bring anything” and only help the authorities, just as the sanctions against Russia turned out to be “a fiasco and damaging for us”.