Mitrovica South Mayor, Agim Bahtiri, said in an interview to the news website that, for 20 years now, Belgrade claims that the Ibar Bridge is the border between Kosovo and Serbia. He said since his election as mayor, there has been a significant decrease of inter-ethnic incidents and that earlier tensions and barricades made it possible for certain people to get rich through smuggling. “Anyone can spark the situation. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted peace. Peace comes with talks,” he added.
Bahtiri said the decision to open the Ibar Bridge was signed in Brussels. “The decision is clear. I cannot act on this because I am mayor of the south. The government needs to act on this as soon as possible,” he said.
Commenting on the 100-percent import tariff on Serbian goods, Bahtiri said the decision should be reviewed and that the tariff should be suspended for 120 days until the end of talks between Kosovo and Serbia.
“Serbia deserve the tariff because of its damaging actions toward Kosovo … We need to review our decisions, because if Kosovo is conditioned by our international friends and they ask us to do this, we need to respond positively by suspending the tariff until the end of the dialogue. Our free Kosovo is a joint project with our friends, because we wouldn’t have this situation without them. I would suggest for the tariff to be suspended for three months until the talks are over,” he added.
