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Rafaela Prifti/
US Senior policy advisor to the Secretary of State and counselor at the US Department of State Derek Chollet wrote in a Tweeter post that he “Spoke with PM @albinkurti today to discuss the EU proposal on normalization of relations with Serbia and to urge Kosovo to accept it. A key theme was our partnership and shared goal of advancing Kosovo’s European & Euro-Atlantic integration. We also discussed the importance of Kosovo’s multiethnic character and moving forward with discussions of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities in the context of the Dialogue, and the need for Kosovan Serb officials to return to their posts.”
Since last month the situation in the north of Kosovo has escalated over the planned ban on Serbia-issued license plates, the mass resignation of ethnic Serb officials from Kosovo institutions, elections for new office holders, the arrest of a Serb policeman over allegations of an attack on central electoral commission headquarters.
Earlier this week, on the heel of her visit at the Vatican State and Italy, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani gave an interview with the Italian daily “Corriere della Sera. During the interview she pointed at “the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as principally responsible for the country’s periodic problems in the north, on account of his financing the Balkan mafia.”
“Russia wishes to divert Western attention away from Ukraine by directing it to the Western Balkans. Serbia threatens security by utilizing forces that collaborate with the Wagner group, purchasing Russian weaponry, sending paramilitaries to the north of Kosovo, and setting up roadblocks to instill fear, “ said President Osmani.
She confirmed Kosovo’s readiness for an agreement to normalize relations with Serbia, and working closely with Western friends to thwart destabilizing efforts by Wagner-linked paramilitaries’.
Kosovo President characterized the methods of her Serbian counterpart as a “Drama Queen,” who plays both the arsonist and the firefighter, and who then eventually talks about peace. She strongly refuted Putin’s comparison of his actions in Ukraine to NATO’s involvement against Milosevic’s terrible war in Kosovo. On the topic of the rights of the Serbian minority, President Osmani stated that those “rights are guaranteed in the Kosovo constitution, better than in any other state in Europe.”