Will the US lift the "non-women" ban on Berisha? Former senior US official: He was punished without evidence, here's how the measure is lifted

Former ambassador and career diplomat at the State Department, Jonathan Moore, a very knowledgeable person on developments in the Balkans, emphasizes exclusively for A2 CNN that the sanctions against former Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, were imposed without concrete evidence, but based on rumors, forwarded by the US embassy in Tirana to Washington.

"This legislation that created this type of sanction was established during the first Trump administration in 2018 and was an attempt to find a more efficient way to impose sanctions on people accused of corruption," Moore said.

He believes that the program for declaring politicians "non grata" has many flaws and should be reviewed.

"Unfortunately, in my personal opinion, there have been several key problems with this legislation. The first is precisely the burden of proof. These sanctions require facts, details, legal arguments and financial transactions that are blocked both by the US, but also through the US. These sanctions, through the State Department, introduced in 2018, seem to be supported mainly by allegations of corruption. So, the first person told the second person, who told the embassy that someone was corrupt. Then, there was also a rush to put several people under sanctions. Mr. Berisha is not the only one in Albania and the subject of these sanctions," Moore said, reports A2 CNN.

"I think there is a serious question that needs to be raised regarding the validity of the sanctions and the content of the 'evidence'. Since this happened in 2018 and we are now 7 years behind and there are many people in the world who are on that list who have never been investigated. And it raises serious questions regarding the validity of the sanctions. Of course they can be challenged and a second problem with this legislation is that there is no objection process or to see if someone has made a positive contribution to the interests of the United States."

Ambassador Moore states that the new Albanian parliament now has the power to intervene in Washington regarding the lifting of the "non-women's ban" for Berisha.

You can watch Ambassador Moore's full interview tonight at 8:00 PM on Ditar i Kosova, where he also talks about President Donald Trump's statements that he stopped Serbia from starting a war against Kosovo. (A2 Televizion)