nepszava.hu;
Serbia; NATO; United State; Kosovo; Stress; United kingdom;
2023-09-30 07:34:00
Tensions rose, and the British sent an entire battalion to reinforce NATO peacekeeping units.
It is a worrying and “destabilizing development” that Serbia is deploying artillery and tank forces on the Kosovo border. BBC White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reported on Friday, then said: “We call on Serbia to withdraw these forces from the border!”
The spokesman explained that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and urged him to “immediately ease and return to dialogue,” and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also spoke with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
We also reported that NATO on Friday authorized the mobilization of additional defense forces in Kosovo, the second such move in three months by NATO, which currently has nearly 4,500 personnel (KFOR) abstaining from its vote on its independence from Serbia in 2008. In the declared state. The British Ministry of Defense has already announced that it will provide a battalion of 500 to 650 personnel to the International Security Force in Kosovo. Although Aleksandar Vucic did not deny that troops had been gathered on the border with Kosovo, he “rejected claims that his country’s forces were on alert” and stated that he had not signed such a decree, and even proved that they did not have half of what they had. Many troops were there two or three months ago.
Tensions escalated after an exchange of gunfire broke out last Sunday in a monastery in northern Kosovo between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police. The fighting continued throughout the day, with one policeman killed and another wounded, four attackers shot, six injured, and five arrested by police, who later found and confiscated a large quantity of weapons in the village.
The Kosovo government accused the Serbian government of supporting the incident. This includes the resignation of Milan Radojicic, deputy head of the Serbian Lista party in Kosovo, on Friday, after he admitted to organizing the armed group. But he denied receiving any help from the Belgrade leadership.
