Dragan,
>>Oh, so they want to do a little investigation in a foreign country? Maybe that's what was actually refused, eh?
Not sure how you made that leap of logic!
My point was (for the purpose of argument) that if the US is concerned that its $ will be channelled into pet activist projects that have little to do with the intended purpose, stipulating that the $ may not be used for that purpose seems a reasonable response. Refusal to accept the $ does tend to imply that the intention was indeed there. In which case this is not a story about US bullying at all.
But neither of us really know, do we?
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1