Starovic: Difficult return to normalization when one side constantly expresses a desire for an escalation

State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense Nemanja Starovic said tonight that he was not satisfied with the State Department's statement in which both sides are expected to take immediate steps to reduce tensions, which implied the unconditional release of three Kosovo police officers, given that, as he pointed out, there was not a single word that mentioned the illegal arrests and detentions of the Serbs from Kosovo, especially the latest arrest of Milun Milenkovic, despite EU and US guarantees.

"I don't like that announcement, because it talks about the unconditional release of three police officers who, without a doubt, committed a serious crime by entering Serbia, which they have no right to do. It is up to the investigative bodies to determine the facts and motives for that crime, the police, and the prosecutor's office to qualify that act and to prosecute them. But, in the statement, there is not a single word about the illegal arrests and detention of our people in Kosovo, especially Milenkovic, who was under the guarantee of the Quint," Starovic said in a guest appearance on RTS.

He noted that part of the Western international community was antagonized by the behavior of Albin Kurti in the last few months, but that the framework of their actions, in which they determined that they wanted to punish Kurti, but not to call into question the support for Pristina, was quite narrow, in order to provide some effective measures.

"And what is coming from Brussels are rather ridiculous measures and they cannot have a real effect. Now it becomes clear to those who kept their eyes firmly closed, that there is no minimum of goodwill to resolve a conflict, and to establish minimal trust, and that no agreement, plan, or implementation map can help us if one side constantly expresses a desire for escalation, for any reason or even produces it itself," Starovic said.

He stated that Kurti "crossed the Rubicon" with his unilateral moves in the last two years and that the concrete act had been the illegal arrest and detention of Dusan Obrenovic and Rados Petrovic and the treatment they had been subjected to by the Kosovo Police, and then the arrest of Milenkovic, through the raid on North Mitrovica, with the mistreatment of all who had been present there.

This, he points out, showed that Kurti does not respect any agreement.

"But what is more dangerous, the reason for the justified dissatisfaction of the Serbs is the fact that Milenkovic was arrested allegedly for an act from December 2022, even though we are not talking about the obligations of Kurti, but that we have clear guarantees from the Quint, that no one will be arrested or detained because of the events of the end of 2022. That is the act by which Kurti crossed the Rubicon and after which it will be difficult to return to some sort of normalization," Starovic pointed out.

Slobodan Zecevic from the Institute for European Studies said that the representatives of Belgrade and Pristina would be brought back to the table by the European Union, most likely as early as next week, but that the problem was that it was most often - a conversation of the deaf.

Zecevic pointed out that Kurti primarily had a military-political program with which he wanted to subjugate the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and bring them under his control.

"He does not give up on that, considering that he will not suffer major sanctions, that he will get away with it with the US and the EU, and he is trying to provoke the Serbs as much as possible, to show that those who will suffer the Albanian occupation, let them suffer, and those who will not they can go to Serbia. That's the logic," Zecevic explained.

He also pointed out that there would be talks, but no solutions if someone didn’t stand in Kurti’s way 

"And who could it be, someone who has the desire and will to stand in his way. Serbia wants and has the will, but the international circumstances are such that we cannot allow ourselves a war with NATO. There is no evidence in the EU that they will stand in his way, and neither do the Americans," Zecevic believes.

Diplomat Zoran Milivojevic notes that a meeting can happen, but that this does not mean that there will be a de-escalation because the meeting itself can do nothing if there is no change on the Pristina side.

"To me, all this looks like a hold-up when it comes to the main actors who have the ability and mechanisms, above all Washington and the majority in Brussels. And, there is none, the threats and measures mentioned are not convincing, and when you see how Kurti reacts to it, it is clear that there is no breakthrough, no chance of dialogue in the direction of de-escalation," Milivojevic explains.

He is afraid of that, he says, because Kurti seems convincing that he intends to carry out his goals to the end, including by force, while the patience of the Serbs is on the edge, and there is no reaction from those who can influence the Pristina side, bearing in mind that it is clear who is the culprit, we see that their inaction continues despite the high level of threats.

Milivojevic noted that there was dissatisfaction in Washington and Brussels with the behavior and government of Albin Kurti, and on the other hand, there was an attitude that nothing should call into question the argumentation of Kosovo's statehood.

He added that there were only two forces that could influence Kurti - the White House and NATO, while, he said, he had no confidence in the European Union because there was nothing that would convince Albin Kurti to change his attitude.