It was also economically and socially dependent and politically much more closely aligned with authorities in Belgrade and Novi Sad than Krajina.[3] This led international community to belief that Croatian intervention in Eastern Slavonia will trigger Yugoslav military reaction and will lead to the larger escalation of hostilities.[4] At the same time military defeat of Krajina and signing of the Washington Agreement opened the space to resolve the armed conflict in Bosnia which US Administration wanted to use before the 1996 United States presidential election.[5] Croatia conditioned its participation at the Dayton Peace Conference on the resolution of conflict in Eastern Slavonia, while international community insisted on avoidance of any new major escalation of Yugoslav crisis.