The Serbian government earlier this week signed an agreement with Kushner-affiliated development companies to allow them to redevelop the former headquarters of the Serbian army.
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Jared Kushner’s company plans to develop real estate in Serbia but has faced opposition from local groups, according to news reports.
The Serbian government signed an agreement earlier this week with a development company affiliated with Kushner, allowing them to rebuild the former headquarters of the Serbian army in Belgrade, which was destroyed in a 1999 U.S.-led NATO bombing campaign. Associated Press the report said. The planned development will include a high-rise hotel, a luxury apartment building, office space and shops.
“Serbia’s economic progress over the past decade has been impressive,” the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump said in a statement. “This development will further elevate Belgrade as a premier international destination.”
While the government welcomed the deal, opposition groups and the public spoke out against it. Many see the bombed former army headquarters as a symbol of Serbia’s resistance to “NATO aggression”. Associated Press.
Among the opposition groups is the Ecological Uprising, whose leader Alexander Yovanovitch said “all means, including physical means, will be used” to prevent the demolition of the former army headquarters and the handing over of the site to an American company.
“The moment the first bulldozers show up, we will be waiting for them,” Yovanovitch told a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
Jovanovic called on the Serbian public to join him in the blockade, especially members of the Serbian Armed Forces and “all those who have the courage to defend the General Staff and not allow this crime to happen”.
Government officials defended the deal as part of Belgrade’s revitalization.
“Twenty-five years after the building was destroyed in the explosion, we will restore it,” Construction Minister Goran Vesić said, according to the Associated Press. “For a quarter of a century, Before this government, no one thought about rebuilding this complex, which when revitalized will contribute to the development of Belgrade and Serbia.
Developers will reportedly fund the construction of a NATO bombing memorial at the site.
The Serbia plan is one of several foreign real estate deals Kushner has pursued in recent months, which have drawn attention due to his father-in-law’s presidential candidacy and Kushner’s previous role in the Trump White House. . In addition to the Serbian project, he is also seeking to develop several hotels and hundreds of villas on Albania’s Zvernek peninsula.
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