BOSNIA TO SEND ISRAEL PROTEST NOTE OVER MP LAPID'S CLAIMS IN CROATIA

SARAJEVO, Jan 18 (Hina) - Bosnia-Herzegovina will officially request that Israeli parliamentary representative Jozef Lapid apologise for his statements about Bosnia-Herzegovina, given during a recent visit to Croatia. A spokesman for the Bosnian Foreign Ministry, Amer Kapetanovic, said in an interview with Friday's issue of the Dnevni Avaz daily Israel would soon receive an official protest note. After a meeting with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on the island of Hvar on January 12, Lapid said Israel and Croatia were both exposed to terrorism, which threatened the entire western world. In a subsequent interview he said Croatia was threatened by Islamic terrorism from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lapid said that Israel had information that the Mujahedeen were being trained in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that their fanaticism would become a serious threat to Croatia as it was to Israel. "The statement that the roots of jihad in East Europe are in Bosnia- Herzegovina is a serious accusation. Such claims must be supported with arguments, the more so as they come from a member of the Knesset," Kapetanovic said. Bosnia's Ambassador to Israel, Danijel Abraham Romano, has already received instructions from Sarajevo to urgently request a meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials. "Ambassador Romano will inform them that we resent the statements made by Jozef Lapid and request their official stand on the matter," Kapetanovic said. (hina) rml