"Belgrade will not allow Kurti the language of threats and blackmail"

Photo: ATA Images

Serbian Ambassador in Washington Marko Djuric assessed today after Prime Minister of so-called Kosovo Albin Kurti announced reintroduction of reciprocal measures, that this an attempt to speak to Serbia in the language of ultimatums and blackmail, which, he believes, is much more dangerous than threats.

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He told Politika daily that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the government, which are firmly committed to constructive dialogue, will certainly not allow Kurti or any other Albanian leader to introduce the language of threats and blackmail into the "mainstream" of the dialogue.

At the same time, he added, anyone who wants peace, cooperation and is open to lasting stability is more than welcome.

"I don't think that it is only about threats, but also about something that is unfortunately more dangerous. An attempt to address Serbia in the language of ultimatums and blackmail is also underway. Either you will unconditionally recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, or you will be faced with revenge, in various hybrid forms and punitive measures," said Djuric.

These punitive measures, he explained, will primarily be aimed at the economy and the physically accessible population that performs some kind of trade between central Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija.

According to him, such discourse coming from Pristina can come as a surprise only to those who, naively or for their own political interests, in an "unfounded" manner saw Kurti as a representative of the "moderate" and "civil option."

"Personally, I think that there is nothing moderate about the new government in Pristina, and the wider international community and all those it in the region who looked at him with sympathy for opportunistic or less benign reasons will soon be convinced of that," Djuric assessed.

He recalls that in the week after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on Pristina to take a constructive approach to dialogue, Kurti instead announced retaliatory measures, and then an official of his Self-Determination party announced unification with Albania "if necessary with a gun," for everything to culminate with in the demands of an alleged NGO from Pristina to criminally prosecute the abbot of the Serbian Orthodox monastery Visoki Decani, Sava Janjic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)