FM Dacic reacts to "evil in store for Serbs in Kosovo" article (Tanjug, B92)
Serbia has been pointing out to a real problem of Pristina possibly resorting to a military conquest of the north of Kosovo. This coincides with Pristina starting to apply some unreasonable decisions, Foreign Affairs Minister and First Deputy PM Ivica Dacic said, Tanjug news agency reports.
Reacting to Nebojsa Covic's opinion piece - who said that "evil is being prepared for Serbs in Kosovo" - in light of recent events, such as members of the Albanian army going to the north - Dacic said that Serbia has been pointing out to this problem "and such hints" and that "it cannot be said that similar things have not happened in the past."
"There was (Operation) Storm in Croatia, and that puts us in a big problem. International forces are there to preserve security - what if they don't do it, what consequences will that have for regional stability and peace? It will have consequences, so we must constantly warn that nobody should play with fire," Dacic said.
As he added, if someone has such plans, "eyes should not be closed to all these problems."
Asked to comment on G7 foreign ministers calling on Belgrade and Pristina to engage constructively in normalizing relations through a comprehensive and legally binding agreement, Dacic noticed that this organization had not made statements (about the Kosovo issue) before.
"It's good that they have urged it - the only thing left is for them to say how it will be done," the Serbian official said.
"If they are unable to put pressure on Haradinaj... turns out Haradinaj is a world power, so the whole G7 put together could not persuade him to revoke the taxes (on goods from central Serbia)... that's a joke, of course," Dacic said.
He added that Haradinaj is being urged publicly to abolish the taxes, and then receives a call telling him, "that was for show, you just carry on."
Dacic pointed out that peace and the negotiation process between Belgrade and Pristina are being undermined in this way.