Arifi: Vucic is the winner regardless of the outcome; Ibrahimi: Kosovo has put itself in an unenviable position

Analyst Dritero Arifi said that Kosovo was in a bad position and that regardless of the final result of today's Kurti-Vucic meeting in Brussels, the winner is Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Klan Kosova television station reported.

"There are two options as outcomes of this meeting. The most positive option is that the two sides find a common language and come to an agreement in the end, while the other option is that they do not come to an agreement, but Kurti's Government will still be forced to postpone the decision. Either option is a surrender for Kosovo since the decision on punishing the Kosovan Serbs had to be postponed. It seems that the Government is giving up, as it is necessary to talk with the Kosovan Serbs in the north, in order to find a solution. This is the surrender of the Government due to reckless decisions," Arifi said.

According to him, if Kurti continued with the second phase of the decision on license plates, i.e. started fining the owners of cars with Serbian city signs in Kosovo, Arifi said this would bring irritation and fear among the citizens.

"If there is no agreement and Kurti decides to continue the decision on punishments, the citizens will be irritated and scared, and it will also bring tensions," Arifi believes.

He said that regardless of the final result of the meeting in Brussels, Vucic was the winner.

"We didn't understand what position we were in. He is still the winner because he is playing on our territory," Arifi said.

Analyst Ilir Ibrahimi estimated that holding a tripartite meeting solely on the issue of license plates was taking the entire process backward.

"License plates are not the main dispute between Kosovo and Serbia, but it is one of the dozens of technical issues that could be resolved by a comprehensive agreement," Ibrahimi pointed out.

According to Ibrahimi, whatever the meeting in Brussels brings, it is known that the Kosovo side has put itself in an unenviable position.

"The US and the EU recently had two requests for the Kosovo side - the postponement of the decision on license plates and the beginning of the establishment of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities. It is enough for Vucic to ask for what the international community asked for, and the Kosovo side remains alone on one side then, and Serbia remains in coordination with the world powers," Ibrahimi noted.

He said that the situation was discouraging and that it testified to the reckless approach of the Government in foreign policy in general, and especially in the dialogue process.

"Let's not forget, the request to delay the decision on the new license plates implementation came from the US Secretary Antony Blinken. Ignoring this request and negotiating a possible delay with President Vucic, Borrell and Lajcak is not a wise tactic," Ibrahimi underlined.