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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including