Velebit: There is accumulated frustration with Kurti in Washington

Vuk Velebit, Executive Director of the Pupin Initiative, believes that Kosovo is not a priority for the US administration and that the absence of a nomination for a US ambassador to Kosovo can be interpreted as part of a broader shift in America's approach to the region. However, he notes that it may simply be a matter of waiting for the elections to conclude or that the issue is not a priority at the moment.

Velebit points out that it is difficult to interpret exactly what lies behind the fact that the US president last week nominated ambassadors for Belgrade, Podgorica, Sarajevo, and Sofia, but not for Pristina. Nevertheless, he says that the deterioration in relations between the administration in Pristina and Washington is clearly noticeable.

“In conversations in Washington, one can notice that when discussing Serbia-US relations, the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue is no longer mentioned in the way it used to be. There is accumulated frustration in Washington with Albin Kurti over the past several years, especially now under the Trump administration. So I think Kosovo has been pushed to the sidelines,” Velebit told Kosovo Online.

He explains that the deterioration in relations between Pristina and the United States was also evident when the strategic dialogue with Kosovo was suspended, even though it had been announced at the same time as the dialogue with Serbia.

According to him, a State Department document submitted to Congress last month clearly states that the first strategic dialogue with Serbia will be launched and held this year.

“These are visible changes when it comes to the American administration's approach to the region, especially regarding its attitude toward Serbs in the region, whether we are talking about Serbs in the Republic of Srpska, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, or Serbia itself and the official relations between Belgrade and Washington,” he said.

Given that the State Department document makes no mention of a strategic dialogue with Pristina, Velebit believes this is certainly a message to Albin Kurti that the Trump administration does not wish to cooperate with him.

“They are aware that Albin Kurti is, by his conduct, a Bolshevik and fundamentally anti-American leader. The Americans would probably like to see someone else in Pristina. The greatest consequences of Albin Kurti's policies are borne by the people living in Kosovo and Metohija, whether Albanians or Serbs,” Velebit believes.

On the other hand, he notes that a positive development is the change in attitude toward the Serbian people in the region, as the US Embassy has become more active, perhaps even more so than before, and has been more vocal regarding the protection of the human and religious rights of Serbs in Kosovo.