"I am personally convinced and I dare to claim that we, as the government and as diplomats, have done everything necessary at this moment to protect our interests," and to avoid anything which might contribute to the escalation of an unnecessary and provoked case," Zuzul told reporters in New York.
He said Croatian diplomats drafted a non-paper with pure facts and the chronology of events and distributed it to all EU member countries, the European Commission and the United States for whom Croatia believed it was necessary to be acquainted with the real situation.
They were also given a report by the Croatian Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and a statement by the Croatian government on the incident during which Croatian police on Wednesday apprehended 12 Slovene citizens, including Slovene MPs because they refused to identify themselves, the Croatian foreign minister said.
Zuzul said that everybody knows that this was a provocation aimed at scoring pre-election political points, but that there were also limits that one must not cross.
"We won't do anything to which might continue the escalation of conflicts, but we also won't allow that an election campaign in any country be to the detriment of Croatia's interests," Zuzul said.
He said Croatia believed in good relations with Slovenia, but that it cannot tolerate the ignoring of the sovereignty and territorial integrity, the borders or provocations.
Zuzul said he expected and hoped that the entire case would calm down, but added that the incident was another confirmation that a solution to the border issue with Slovenia was possible only through international arbitration.
The Croatian Foreign Minister said that everyone in the international community with whom he held talks showed understand for Croatia's standpoint .
Zuzul said the Croatian government would continue to be open on arbitration for talks even after the elections in Slovenia.