TIRANA, June 21 – US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans and EU Special Representative for the Belgrade – Pristina Dialogue, Gabriel Escobar and Miroslav Lajčak, called Kurti and Vučić to focus on dialogue and contribute to de-escalating the situation in the north of Kosovo, warning that, in the opposite, both parties will face consequence.
Such a warning came as US President Joe Biden issued the notice on the continuation of the national emergency with respect to the Western Balkans on June 20 as reported by the press office of the White House.
“On June 26, 2001, by Executive Order 13219, the President declared a national emergency with respect to the Western Balkans pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting, (i) extremist violence in the former Republic of Macedonia (what is now the Republic of North Macedonia) and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region, or (ii) acts obstructing implementation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999, in Kosovo. The President subsequently amended that order in Executive Order 13304 of May 28, 2003, to take additional steps with respect to certain actions that obstruct implementation of, among other things, the Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001 relating to Macedonia (what is now the Republic of North Macedonia),” said the Notice.
In conclusion the Notice said: “Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13219 with respect to the Western Balkans.”
In the meantime Escobar said that the crisis in north of Kosovo “has the potential to become a regional conflict”, and called on the President of Serbia and Prime Minister of Kosovo “to unconditionally accept” the European point plan for de-escalation.
The US envoy said that, from the perspective of the US government, the defining characteristic of the Western Balkans is tremendous opportunity.
For his part Lajčak said he was “not overly worried” about Vucic’s and Kurti’s rhetoric on the meeting they have been invited to by EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell, adding he believes they will attend.
“To say ‘no’ to the invitation from the European Union would really be a very serious and a very negative act. Therefore, the meeting will take place. What is extremely, extremely important is de-escalation, because you cannot have a normalization process as long as you have hundreds if not thousands of people out in the streets,” said Lajčak.
He explained that the next Vucic-Kurti meeting in Brussels will be a “crisis management” meeting, not one focused on the normalization of relations.
Asked what will happen if Kurti does not change his position, Lajčak said he does not think escalation or the risk of further violence is in Prime Minister Kurti’s interest.
Asked what will happen if Vučić fails to change his position, Lajčak said he does not want to “speculate about what if” and added that the two leaders never said ‘no’ and that he does not believe they will do so this time. /argumentum.al
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