The US special envoy and the European mediator for the Western Balkans and the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Gabriel Escobar and Miroslav Lajcak, ended their two-day tour of Pristina. They are traveling to Belgrade visibly disappointed with the outcome of their conversation with the Kosovo PM, Albin Kurti.
After numerous meetings with top officials, the prime minister, the president, the opposition, Srpska Lista, civil society representatives, and the media, Escobar and Lajcak confirmed that they failed to get a positive response from the Kosovo PM to the demands they have been repeating since last Friday.
In order to solve the latest crisis in the north, the highest representatives of the Western partner countries reiterated their demands to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti – to urgently de-escalate the crisis in the north and then proceed with the implementation of the Ohrid Agreement; that is, to form the ASM.
De-escalation implies the withdrawal of police forces from municipal buildings in Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok, so that the mayors continue to carry out their, as they point out, „administrative“ mandate from alternative locations, and to call local elections with the guaranteed participation of Srpska Lista.
The US-European duo reiterated today that they have been dealing with crisis management for months now instead of working on the implementation of the reached agreements.
Escobar complained that during the talks with the Kosovo officials, they only want to talk about Serbia.
“For me, it is for Kosovo not to define itself by Serbia, but to define itself by its own values,” the US envoy said in a separate conversation with representatives of several media outlets.
“Not by its relationship not to the six million people of Serbia, but to the seven hundred million people of the Euro-Atlantic community, that’s what we want.”
“Yet, whenever we talk to the PM and his deputy PM, all they ever want to talk about is Serbia,” he underlined.
“We want to talk about greater integration. With the Association, on European terms, under protection of minority rights, I have a platform under which I can go to other European countries and say: ‘They’ve done everything asked, so we need to move forward on other benefits to Kosovo.’ And I cannot get there if Kosovo doesn’t do its part of the agreement,” Escobar warned.
In response to several questions from the media outlets from Pristina, about the influence of Serbia, that is, President Vucic, on the Serbs from Kosovo, Escobar said that the Association is a way to unwind Serbia’s control of the north and put it under Kosovan control.
Read more:
Escobar in Pristina: If you turn your back on this agreement, you’ve turned your back on Europe
Escobar: The international community is not going to let another conflict happen again
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