Starovic: Kurti insists on tightening at all costs, Belgrade with clear red lines

State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense Nemanja Starovic told for RTS that every time there was even the smallest space for de-escalation, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti closed that space, insisting on tightening at all costs.

He assessed that Belgrade must be responsible, in constant communication with the international community, but with clear red lines, Starovic announced part of his statement on his Twitter.

According to him, viewed from Kurti's perspective, no Serbian patriarch cannot be good enough to be acceptable to him, and that this reflects the attitude towards all Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

"I would like to remind you of the fact that the Brussels Agreement and the so-called constitution of Kosovo based on Ahtisaari's plan, and the founding charter of the United Nations and the European Convention on Human Rights, were violated with that physical ban," Starovic added.

According to Starovic, every time there is even the smallest space for de-escalation, Kurti closes that space, insisting on escalating the situation at any cost.

"We also had a certain type of understanding from the part of the western part of the international community, which is maintained in the words of the US special envoy Gabriel Escobar, a few days after December 10, when this type of protest by the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija began, who said that there is a legitimate concern of Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija," Starovic reminded.

However, he explains that sometimes the influence of great powers is not linear and not unambiguous.

"In that sense, I can't know who exactly is whispering everything in Albin Kurti's ear, if maybe they are the same those who whispered to Mr. Saakashvili in 2008. We know how it ended. Ultimately, we know whose responsibility it is to make those unilateral moves. That is the responsibility of the temporary institutions in Pristina, and it is up to us to point out how harmful these processes are," Starovic says.