US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reassured officials from Kosovo that the US would push for recognition of the breakaway province's independence from Serbia within months.
The officials, who included the Kosovar prime minister and president, told Rice they would not upend new negotiations by unilaterally declaring independence, but would coordinate any move with the US.
"The United States made clear very firmly that the issue needs to be resolved sooner rather than later," Kosovar President Fatmir Sejdiu said in an interview on Monday.
The meetings followed the failure of the US and European countries to win Russia's support of a UN Security Council resolution endorsing independence.
Following a move by the Security Council to set aside a resolution on Kosovo, the US and the EU said on Friday they would move the forum for deciding Kosovo's status to the Contact Group on Kosovo -- which includes representatives from the US, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia.
LAST ATTEMPT
US and European officials have agreed to allow 120 days for further negotiations that would include talks with Kosovo and Serbia in a last attempt to reach an agreement.
Sejdiu said the US had reassured Kosovo that countries will move quickly after the 120 days have passed to recognize Kosovo's independence. That move would happen regardless of objections from other countries including Russia, Sejdiu said.
"We can see that the United States is very serious about this 120 days of engagement and this was quite an assurance," he said. "It is quite evident that independence will be the outcome at the end of that engagement period and that independence is inevitable."
US officials have said the US would move to recognize Kosovo within months, though they have not specified the 120-day period.
During a visit to Albania last month, US President George W. Bush hinted that the US could recognize Kosovo even without Security Council consent, saying there cannot be endless negotiations over its independence.
The Kosovar population is predominantly ethnic Albanian.
Sejdiu expressed disappointment that the Security Council was unable to reach a consensus and that the resolution on Kosovo's future was set aside on Friday in the face of a possible Russian veto.
GRAVE FAILURE
"It was a grave failure that was a big disappointment to everybody," he said.
The talks in Washington followed a comment by Kosovar Prime Minister Agim Ceku suggesting that the province's parliament should adopt its own resolution setting Nov. 28 as a possible date for declaring independence.
But Sejdiu said that Kosovo would not declare independence without coordinating with its allies.
"Of course at a certain stage the Kosovo parliament will announce the status of Kosovo, its independence," he said. "But this will only be done in a close partnership and agreement with the countries that support Kosovo's independence."
Senior US officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for attribution, said that all the officials in Monday's talks, including Ceku, agreed on coordinating a declaration of independence.
INSTABILITY
Sejdiu said that delay beyond the 120 days could lead to political instability in Kosovo. The moderate political forces represented by the delegation are under pressure from more radical parties and the public to show that they will deliver independence.
Although Kosovo remains a province of Serbia, it has been under UN and NATO administration since 1999 when a 78-day NATO-led air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
The UN's special envoy on Kosovo recommended internationally supervised independence in April.
Tomorrow, US officials, including Rice, will discuss the province's future with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic in Washington.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS