Belgrade: The ethnic Albanian leaders in the breakaway province of Kosovo have been charged by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic with attempting to start a war in which NATO would once more support them.
"They want to involve NATO in a conflict with Serbia. Albin Kurti, the prime minister of Kosovo, wants to be like [Vladimir] Zelensky, and I'd be like [Vladimir] Putin, according to Vucic, who made the remarks on Friday.
"It's what they've been going for and doing all along. They also have the backing of a sizeable portion of the international community because [Kosovo] is their child, he continued.
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Vucic was making remarks in reference to the recent arrest of a member of the ethnic Serb community on suspicion of committing "war crimes" during the 1998–1999 conflict, which culminated in NATO bombing Serbia on behalf of ethnic Albanian separatists. With support from the West, the interim administration in Pristina proclaimed its independence in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to accept it.
Vucic claimed, "They don't want normalisation; they want to humiliate Serbia. But I can assure you that won't take place. There won't be any humiliation or submission.
It amounts to a de facto recognition of the breakaway province, which would have the right to join NATO, the EU, and the UN, that the EU's proposal for "normalisation of relations" between Pristina and Belgrade, made public last month, amounts to. Vucic insists he signed nothing and that he will never accept those conditions.
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He said, referring to the EU-sponsored talks in North Macedonia's neighbour, "We are getting ready for talks on Monday or Tuesday. "However, I'm not sure why. They declared they wouldn't accept a compromise. So why are you here then? That we would acknowledge Kosovo?"
Before anything else, Vucic insists, the EU must uphold the 2013 Brussels Agreement, which included a provision for political autonomy for the province's ethnic Serb population. Since it would violate Kosovo's "constitution," the ethnic Albanian authorities have steadfastly refused to carry out that provision of the agreement for the past ten years. Vucic noted that neither the EU nor the US have taken any action to persuade Pristina to change its position.
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Instead, the EU has recently allowed Kosovo to enter the bloc without a visa while threatening Serbia with an economic boycott if it does not abide by the Western sanctions against Russia.