Dacic: Kurti's plan is escalation; Pristina is dissatisfied with the negotiations

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, assessed that there was a constant effort in the international community to blame everyone for the crisis in the north of Kosovo, including the Serbian side, although it was clear that the responsibility did not lie with Belgrade, adding that there was a doubt that the plan of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was not de-escalation, but escalation, because, as he stated, Pristina was not satisfied with the negotiations, Kurir reports.

Dacic, a day after the meeting between President Aleksandar Vucic and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as well as the technical dialogue between the negotiators of Belgrade and Pristina with the Special EU Envoy for dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, indicated that instead of pressuring the one who caused escalation, the international community called on both sides to calm down.

"You know how it goes, they start negotiating about something concrete and then there is an escalation. Then in the international community, instead of pressuring the one who causes these escalations, they call everyone to calm down, and the Serbian side bears no responsibility. We have great doubts that de-escalation is not Kurti's plan at all, but escalation, because they are extremely dissatisfied with the negotiations. They are only waiting when Serbia will recognize the independence of Kosovo," Dacic said.

He assessed the statements of Kosovo officials as supreme cynicism.

As he says, at the last meeting in Brussels, at which he was also present, the Kosovo Minister of Foreign Affairs, Donika Gervalla, criticized the officials of the European Union for not doing enough to ensure that Serbia recognized Kosovo and that the dialogue was going in the wrong direction.

"She was so disagreeable that Josep Borrell turned off her microphone at the end. But that has no effect on the field," Dacic added.

He pointed out that Gervalla had said at the Security Council session that Kosovo was "the most democratic part of the Western Balkans".

"And you are in a dilemma whether they really think so, which would be a bigger problem than if they lie and do it for propaganda purposes. If they really think that, it is a much bigger problem. The Serbs are in one of the most difficult periods in the previous few decades. They get the impression that there is no life for them there, which is Kurti's goal," Dacic said.