Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said today that the country has not received any signal from the United States regarding the issue of the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), and that the refinery will be closed on Saturday or Sunday.
"We will exit the 'quiet walk' on Saturday or Sunday. Then, most likely, the refinery will have to close. We have not received a signal from the US that we will receive a license to resume the production of oil derivatives. But what should we do," the Serbian leader said in a joint appearance with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
He said that, based on the information available to Belgrade, OFAC was waiting to approve the granting of the license, but the decision is still pending from the State Department, reports nova.rs.
"There is still no decision. This puts us in a difficult position. We are prepared. Citizens should not worry about heating, electricity, or gas stations. We have told them to give us time to give the real owner time to sell his property, and you have our guarantees that everything will be as you requested. If this is not enough for you, then I am afraid that behind all this there are other things hidden," Vučić declared.
The latter recalled that today is the fiftieth day that not a single liter of oil has passed through the Janaf pipeline, but that no one in Serbia has felt or seen any problems.
Otherwise, NIS was placed on the US sanctions list on January 10 due to the so-called "secondary risk", i.e. majority Russian ownership.
The US sanctions aim, among other things, to prevent the financing of the war in Ukraine through money coming from Russian energy companies. telegraph/
