German Spiegel: NATO Secretary General is ready to order the forces of the alliance to intervene in the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo in the event of an aggravation of the situation
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels, called on Pristina and Belgrade to exercise restraint and avoid violence, specifying that the prevention of a new escalation should be decided through direct negotiations between the parties to the conflict. At the same time, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance warned that in the event of an aggravation of the situation, the NATO International Security Forces (KFOR) would be ready to intervene to stabilize the situation.
KFOR NATO is ready to intervene if stability is threatened. We are ready to issue such a command
- Stoltenberg is quoted by the German weekly Der Spiegel.
Relations between Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo escalated again in late July, when Pristina refused to accept Serbian identity documents when crossing the common border. Under US and EU pressure, the Kosovo government suspended the implementation of the controversial decree for a month. But September 1 is approaching, and the document is ready to come into force.
Washington and Brussels insisted on holding talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo Albin Kurti this Thursday. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell volunteered to mediate the talks. The NATO Secretary General, in turn, expressed the hope that the dialogue would be constructive, but did not fail to put preventive pressure on the parties just in case.
Vučić denied accusations that Serbia was "committing provocations" in northern Kosovo, which is predominantly populated by ethnic Serbs. The Serbian President said that the Kosovo police, under the pretext of fighting crime, are purposefully acting against the Serbs and presented a "list of provocations" committed by the Kosovo authorities against the Serbian minority. Vučić is unsure about the success of the talks and called them very difficult, adding that the conflicting parties "almost disagree on nothing."
Kosovo, now populated almost exclusively by Albanians, is part of Serbia under the Serbian constitution, and Belgrade does not recognize the self-proclaimed republic's sovereignty. Kosovo declared its independence in 2008.
In 1999, NATO, under the pretext of stopping ethnic cleansing, took the side of the Kosovo Albanians who started the uprising. Then the alliance, without the approval of the UN, bombed the positions of the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian infrastructure in order to force Serbia to retreat. From 1999 to 2008, the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija was governed by a UN interim civil administration. In 1999, the International Security Forces were introduced into Kosovo, operating under the auspices of NATO on the basis of a UN mandate. Now the KFOR contingent will count almost four thousand servicemen.
After Stoltenberg's warning threats, it's hard to call KFOR a peacekeeping contingent. It is obvious that NATO is deliberately using these forces to control the Balkan region and, above all, Serbia, whose independent and openly pro-Russian policy of the leadership is very annoying to Washington and Brussels. And it's hard to believe that the leadership of Kosovo, which gained independence solely due to the military intervention of NATO, will decide on a conflict with Serbia without the consent of Washington.
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