Photo: Tanjug
Serbia has been detected as the main disruptive factor standing in the way of normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina and calming tensions in Kosovo. In essence, several dozens of Western parliamentarians are asking the USA, the EU and Great Britain to put pressure on Belgrade, and as an effective example they point to the US Government's move to put the head of the BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, under the sanctions regime
When several dozen parliamentarians from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Austria, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands and the chairmen of the foreign policy committee of the Senate and the Bundestag foreign policy committee send a joint letter to the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken , British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borello, it should be taken very seriously.
Although the letter asks the US, the EU and Great Britain to review their policies "both towards Serbia and towards Kosovo", the accent is placed on the responsibility of the Serbs in Kosovo and Belgrade, which means Aleksandar Vučić, for destabilization because, it is said, they are boycotting Serb local elections in the north of Kosovo, the attack on KFOR soldiers and the arrest of three Kosovo policemen "contributed to the rapid deterioration of the situation, which threatens not only the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, but also regional peace."
The letter also mentions reports about the alleged smuggling of weapons from Serbia to Kosovo and the storage of weapons in the north, although KFOR stated that there is no evidence of this, the Voice of America reports. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti warned against the "arming of Serbs in Kosovo".
A sovereign and functional democracy
The letter emphasizes that Kosovo is a "sovereign and functional democracy" and that "this fact should be the basis of future common policy in the current crisis", which means that Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo's sovereignty, is the main disruptive factor in any future effort to ensure the stability of the region.
And further: "Serbia's attempts to interfere in the democratic elections in Kosovo should have been criticized as foreign interference (in the internal affairs of a sovereign state) and certain measures should be applied if they continue to do so... We should apply the diplomacy of deterrence if we want to solve the current crisis". That is, the representatives of the Serbian authorities should be severely punished as a preventive measure in order to comply with the demands of the West.
The language of coercion
The fact that the letter diplomatically calls for "balance" in the approach to both Kosovo and Serbia means little when the main culprit for the tensions has been detected.
All in all, the high-profile signatories of the appeal to change the policy of the USA, the EU and Great Britain state that "Serbia is not under enough pressure due to the arrest of Kosovo policemen and the attack on KFOR soldiers, but that they have taken note of the sanctions that the USA recently imposed on the head of the BIA Aleksandar Vulin", which means that Serbia, that is, Aleksandar Vučić, only understands the language of coercion, so it should be applied more often and even more firmly.
And since "the current approach (obviously) does not work", it would be appropriate that "the international community learns from the mistakes of the past and does not lead a policy whose center is Belgrade", that is, that the understanding and patience for the policy of "respect" as the foreign policy in the context of sanctions against Russia was defined by Vučić, and it can also be applied to his Kosovo policy.
End of patience
This letter from the western parliamentarians certainly has more political weight than the articles in the "New York Times", "The Guardian" and on the German public service "Tagesschau" about Vučić's connections with criminal clans, or the recent article in the German "Spiegel" which exposes the president of Serbia as "dangerous". autocrat". These are all very influential media, and the media in functional democracies and how they can influence the politics of those who make decisions.
The assessment of the president of the Serbia Center party, Zdravko Ponoš, that "there is no doubt that the letter is the result of successful Albanian lobbying" reveals the essence of Serbian Kosovo delusions. No "lobbying" is needed for countries that long ago recognized Kosovo's independence as an irreversible historical fact to have less and less patience for Serbia, which not only does not recognize Kosovo's independence, but actively hinders it wherever it can.
Vučić wants to prove through the Serbian List that Kosovo is not independent and that Kurti has to ask him about many things. And no matter how much Kurti gets on the nerves of the representatives of the Western community, for them he is the prime minister of the "sovereign and functional democracy" that Belgrade is threatening with its politics.
The press service of the President of the Republic announced that Vučić and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić will address the public today at 18 p.m. The reason for this latest in an endless series of Vučić's addresses was not specified.
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The head of the BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, is the most trusted person of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. Vulin did nothing that Vučić would not approve. American sanctions against Vulin are a warning to Vučić that he must change his policy. The President of the Republic cannot escape this situation unscathed
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