Dacic: We are trying to get the EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo to challenge Pristina's candidacy

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic, said today that Serbia, in addition to preparing for the arrival of numerous officials, was also working to ensure that EU members who had not recognized Kosovo's independence from the status aspect challenge the announced candidacy of Pristina for EU membership.

Dacic told Tanjug that in addition to the announced arrivals of numerous officials, December 15 was important for Serbia, because there was a possibility that Pristina would apply for EU membership.

"We are also working on inviting all EU member states that have not recognized Kosovo to challenge the issue from the status aspect - that there were no conditions to discuss it," Dacic said.

The minister added that the Czech Republic had a role in the whole process as the country that presided over the EU.

"We will see if the request will be rejected or if it will be sent for consideration, but it all depends on the EU president," he said, adding that talks were also underway with Hungary, which, although it had admitted, did not vote for Kosovo.

"We are trying our best to make our views heard and to oppose double standards." If Escobar is in Kosovo, I don't really think that Kurti is so crazy that he will make major incidents in his presence. The goal is to de-escalate the problem," Dacic said.

When asked when the notes of the countries that had withdrawn recognition would be presented, Dacic said that he would discuss it with the president - when would be the time to do so.

"We will wait for Kosovo's application when it comes to the EU." We adhered to the Washington Agreement, but the applications for membership in the Council of Europe and the EU show that Kosovo does not respect them", stated Dacic and emphasized that "what is certain is that Kosovo can currently count on 83 votes out of 193 UN members ".

Dacic reminded that Serbia was expecting several very important visits this week, from the arrival of the Ministers for Europe of Great Britain and France to the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, Escobar, Lajcak, and representatives of France and Germany were coming for dialogue.

"He was supposed to come, and most likely the visit of the Counselor to the US Secretary of State Blinken (Derek Chollet) will be delayed," he said.

Dacic also announced that on Thursday the Government should adopt the request according to which Serbia would request the return of our army and police to Kosovo based on the UN Resolution 1244.

"It is important to preserve the peace; Serbia will not be the culprit of any incidents, nor will it give motive for any intervention," Dacic said.

He stressed that Serbia called for the respect of all international agreements, including Resolution 1244, the Brussels Agreement, and above all that the situation in Kosovo and Metohija could not be resolved by unilateral acts, as Kurti was doing because the police had nothing to look for in the north without consent of the Serbs.

"We hope that there will not be a situation where Serbia has to consider other moves," he said and reminded that Serbia had three red lines.

He emphasized that "Belgrade will not discuss the CSM again, that it does not consider or want to recognize the independence of so-called Kosovo, nor to allow membership in the UN, nor physical attacks on the Serbs in Kosovo".

"We hope that it will not come to that. We are ready for talks to resolve all problems peacefully. The main source of the problem is Kurti, and the international community should take that seriously," Dacic told Tanjug.

Speaking about the situation in Kosovo, Dacic assessed that Albin Kurti believed that the great tensions that existed in Kosovo represented a shortcut to solving the Kosovo issue.

"It is obvious that his concept is to ignite a series of small fires with the desire to eventually either force the urgency of finding a solution that would be acceptable to him or to somehow buy time without considering the essence of the issue," Dacic explained.

According to him, even the representatives of Quint, who were coming on December 17, would not be able to ignore the current situation.

"It will not be a matter of just some papers or proposals of some documents, but you have to solve the fires that he starts, to put them out," Dacic told TV K1.

Dacic said that Serbia was interested in what Annalena Baerbock had to say because she was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, but that she had to be aware that Angela Merkel had supported the CSM.

"Baerbock should be aware that it cannot be said that they respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and do not respect the territorial integrity of Serbia. She should be aware that what she talks about has serious consequences", Dacic said.

He said that the biggest cause of the problem in Kosovo was that Kurti did not respect the Brussels Agreement and that the big powers were "playing silly".

"If now Baerbock or someone else says that the army and police of Serbia cannot return to Kosovo and that Resolution 1244 should be ignored, then what should we respect then?" Should we ignore the Washington Agreement? She thinks that we should not respect anything except what Kurti says", the minister said and pointed out that Kurti had to be reasoned first.

He said that even the international community did not like this situation and that they would like everything to pass peacefully.

"Shortcuts are being sought to solve this issue. We cannot allow those from Kosovo to occupy the north under the pretext of a fake state. As long as the UN exists, Resolution 1244 must be valid. They would have abolished that resolution a long time ago if they could," he said, adding that the West referred only to those parts of Resolution 1244 that suited them.