Russia warned Kosovo's leaders that if they declare independence the territory will never become a member of the UN or other international political institutions.
The US and Britain countered on Wednesday by reaffirming their support for Kosovo's drive for independence from Serbia, a close ally of Russia.
The future status of Kosovo, a province of Serbia that has been run by the UN and NATO since 1999, was not on the Security Council's official agenda on Wednesday. The council was supposed to discuss a report on the UN Mission in Kosovo, but instead the two sides replayed their debate last month on independence versus autonomy for the Serb province and neither side budged.
With Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders expected to declare independence as early as next month, the stakes were high and the key players sent their top leaders -- Serbian President Boris Tadic and Kosovo's newly elected Prime Minister Hashim Thaci -- to make their case again to the UN's most powerful body.
Tadic echoed Russia's call for further negotiations, saying a solution that would both provide autonomy and guarantee rights for Kosovo Albanians was "possible and attainable."
He said Serbia had become a peaceful democracy and there was no reason it should be "unjustly punished again" because of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists a decade ago.
But Thaci told the council that Kosovo has laid the foundations to be a democratic state and independence is a "first step to regional success and our integration in the European family," according to a copy of his speech.
Later, he told reporters: "Very soon we will take a decision and we hope that very soon [the] international community will recognize us -- Washington, Britain and other states."
After the Dec. 19 Security Council debate, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad declared the views of the two sides "irreconcilable," and said it was time for an independent Kosovo, a stand backed by Britain, France and most members of the EU.
On Wednesday, Khalilzad told reporters: "We know where we are heading. There is no change with regard to the fact that the council is blocked."
Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers agreed that "nothing's changed."
"I don't think there's any prospect of further negotiations, so we need to plan ahead and the European Union's made clear its approach," he said. "There will be a further discussion among EU foreign ministers on Saturday."
But Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the future of Kosovo was a Security Council issue and not an issue concerning EU leaders.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS