Albanian Language Media:

• Haziri wants reach of LDK-LVV agreement today (lajmi.net)
• Albania’s President and PM react to Iran Supreme Leader’s remarks (media)
• Apostolova concerned about Simic’s vehicle: Police to investigate the case (media)
• Haxhiu: News on disappearance of Astrit Dehari’s roommate shocked us (Express)
• Kandic: If Serbia possesses evidence against Mehmetaj, they should submit them to Kosovo (RTK)
• Haradinaj: Kosovo has fulfilled criteria for visa liberalization (RTK)

Serbian Language Media:

• Dacic: Five countries with undefined status regarding Kosovo (Vecernje Novosti, Kontakt plus radio) 
• A Serbian List official's vehicle set on fire in Leposavic (KoSSev, N1)
• Serbian List: Burning of Simic’s car is an attack against all free Serbs in Kosovo (TV Most)

International:

• Abducted Serb Radio Team Disappear in Kosovo (Balkan Insight)

   

Albanian Language Media

  Haziri wants reach of LDK-LVV agreement today (lajmi.net)

Leaders of the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Albin Kurti and Isa Mustafa will meet again today in their efforts to reach an agreement for governing coalition.

LDK’s deputy leader Lutfi Haziri said he wishes for the agreement to be reached today. “I would very much want for it to conclude today. This does not depend only on LDK, but LVV as well,” Haziri told lajmi.net news portal.

This portal further notes that LVV has violated the deadline set by the President of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, for submitting the name of the candidate for Prime Minister of Kosovo.

Albania’s President and PM react to Iran Supreme Leader’s remarks (media)

Several news outlets report that Albania’s Prime Minister and President have reacted to a recent statement by Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei saying that “Albania is a small and evil country that harbors Iran’s traitors”. 

Prime Minister Edi Rama said: “this topic, in relation with Iran, is nothing new for us. We have taken a step that honors Albania and is in Albanian tradition and part of the undisputed strategic alliance with the United States of America when we decided to open our doors to a group of people that were under threat. Even in the agreement we have reached, those people were given refuge in Albania as part of a humanitarian and not a political operation. We know very well how dictatorships work and how obsessed they are with killing everything and every opponent around the world. I don’t believe Albania is specifically exposed to this and we have no reason to believe this. We are in constant touch with our allies … when it comes to intelligence, they [allies] are undisputed and we are in safe hands as far as information is concerned”.

President Ilir Meta too reacted saying that “Albania is not an evil country, but a democratic country that has suffered from an evil dictatorship unparalleled in its kind, therefore, considers human rights sacred”.

Apostolova concerned about Simic’s vehicle: Police to investigate the case (RTK)

Head of the EU Office in Kosovo Nataliya Apostolova reacted about Wednesday’s incident in the North, where the vehicle of the Kosovo Assembly MP from the Serbian List Slavko Simic, was set on fire.

“Worried to hear reports on the attack on property of one of the Deputy Speakers of the Kosovo Assembly. Expect police to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation in order for the perpetrators to be brought to justice,” Apostolova wrote.

Haxhiu: News on disappearance of Astrit Dehari’s roommate shocked us (Express)

Albulena Haxhiu, Kosovo Assembly MP from the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) took to Facebook to write that disappearance of Astrit Dehari’s roommate is yet another shock.

“Last night, we were informed by Kallxo.com portal that one of the individuals who was roommate of our activist Astrit Dehari has disappeared. There is no doubt that this news was yet another shock for all of us who seek justice for Astrit!

Just as last night, today we do not have any information if this news is correct, and if so, what are the institutions doing about it.

Family, activists and citizens should be informed as soon as possible,” Haxhiu wrote.

Kandic: If Serbia possesses evidence against Mehmetaj, they should submit them to Kosovo (RTK)

Nezir Mehmetaj from Kosovo is being kept in detention in Serbia. He was arrested on Friday 3 January while going for a medical visit in Nis, together with his mother. Human rights activist in Serbia, Natasa Kandic, took to Twitter to write that War Crimes Prosecution in Serbia should submit evidence to Kosovo’s Prosecution.

“If there is evidence that Nezir Mehmetaj has committed crimes, the Prosecution for War Crimes in Serbia should submit them to the Kosovo Prosecution. He is a Kosovo citizen and it should be verified there if he is guilty, suspected or innocent,” Kandic wrote.

Haradinaj: Kosovo has fulfilled criteria for visa liberalization (RTK)

Acting Prime Minister of Kosovo Ramush Haradinaj met today in Pristina with Susanne Schulz, Director for South-Eastern Europe, Turkey and member states of the European Association for Free Trade at the German Foreign Ministry.

Haradinaj said Kosovo and Germany have successfully deepened bilateral cooperation in political and economic fields, which represents a major strategic achievement for Kosovo and the region.

He added that Kosovo has managed to create powerful ally and Germany’s support is extremely required in order to continue with Kosovo’s integration in the big European family and possibility of free movement for Kosovo citizens, stressing that Kosovo has already fulfilled the criteria.

 

Serbian Language Media

  Dacic: Five countries with undefined status regarding Kosovo (Vecernje Novosti, Kontakt plus radio) 

Belgrade could reach its next target and lower the number of countries that recognize Kosovo's independence below 90 given that five states that Pristina holds on its list of allies do not have "locked positions", writes Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti. 

Novosti writes that out of the 193 UN members, 95 currently do not recognize Kosovo's independence, while 93 recognizes, and Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic tells the daily that Egypt, Peru, Oman, the Dominican Republic and Guinea-Bissau are in undefined status.

According to Dacic, Cairo recognised Pristina "on paper", but they never vote for them in international organizations.

If, according to Novosti, the number of recognitions would be reduced to less than 90, that would mean that Pristina would be at the level it was in 2012, that is, its lobbying potential has been exhausted.

Dacic notes that Peru allegedly recognized Kosovo's independence but did not establish diplomatic relations with Pristina and do not vote for them.

"The Omani chief of staff told me that they did not recognize KiM, while Pristina claims they did. Omani representatives vote differently on Kosovo from meeting to meeting," Dacic said. 

The Dominican Republic recognized Kosovo but voted against Pristina in Istanbul and said it would respect any solution reached in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, said Dacic. 

The fifth country is Guinea-Bissau, which withdrew recognition in 2017, but their president overturned that decision.

As the presidential election ended there, Dacic expects that the new head of state will not cause problems and that Guinea will "move to the number of safe countries that do not recognize Kosovo".

Dacic also points out that Pristina currently does not have a majority in the UN General Assembly.

Vecernje Novosti reports that with the exception of Guinea-Bissau, which withdrawn recognition of Kosovo, but that decision awaits definitive confirmation,  Nauru, Palau, the Commonwealth of Dominica, São Tomé and Príncipe, Suriname, Solomon Islands, Madagascar, Lesotho, Grenada, Burundi , Papua New Guinea, Comoros, Liberia, Togo, Central African Republic and Ghana suspended the recognition.

A Serbian List official's vehicle set on fire in Leposavic (KoSSev, N1)

A car reported to be owned by a senior official of the Serbian List was set ablaze in Leposavic Kosovo north, the KoSSev portal reported on Thursday.

The portal said that this was the third time that privately-owned cars have been torched in that majority-Serb town over the past month.  

Leposavic is one of four majority Serb municipalities in the north of Kosovo which were supposed to have formed the Community of Serb Municipalities under the Brussels Agreement.  

Region North Kosovo Police spokesman Lieutenant Branislav Radovic said that a black Peugeot with Kosovo license plates was deliberately set on fire in front of the building where its owner lives. He identified the owner only by the initial S.S. 

KoSSev reported that it had learned unofficially that the car belongs to Slavko Simic, deputy speaker of the Kosovo Parliament and the Serbian List MP.  

A car owned by Serbian List official Milos Perovic MP (a deputy Labour Minister at the time) was torched in mid-2019 in the majority-Serb municipality of Zubin Potok, KoSSev said and recalled that the latest arson attack was the 44th torching of a car in majority-Serb areas since 2014.

The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric confirmed that the car belonged to Simic and called the arson attack “a cowardly act by people who believe that the will of the Serb people in Kosovo to fight for their rights and survival can be dulled”. Djuric’s written statement called the Serbian List to show restraint.

Serbian List: Burning of Simic’s car is an attack against all free Serbs in Kosovo (TV Most)

“The brutal and perfidious attack on the Serbian List member Slavko Simic, by setting his family car ablaze is an attack against all free Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija who are fighting for the survival of the Serbian people,” reads the Serbian List press release published on Thursday, Zvecan-based TV Most reported.

“This wrongdoing is the best example of the terrible pressures which the representatives of Serbian people are being exposed to, the ones who stand in defence of the interests of our people and our state of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija.”

“Serbian List most harshly condemns this cowardly act and calls on the competent authorities to urgently uncover and arrest the organizers and perpetrators of this crime”.

 

International

  Abducted Serb Radio Team Disappear in Kosovo (Balkan Insight)

It was August 21, 1998 when a team from Radio Pristina was deployed to Zociste in western Kosovo on an assignment.

In the car was radio journalist Djuro Slavuj and driver Ranko Perenic.

They had both worked for Radio Pristina for years: Perenic started in 1980 and Slavuj in 1995, and both lived and worked in Kosovo at the point when the conflict between Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army intensified. By 1998, there had already been a dozen murders and kidnappings of civilians in Kosovo.

Perenic and Slavuj’s assignment that August 21 was to cover the return of several monks who had been abducted from the Sveti Vraci (Holy Healers) monastery in Zociste. They left the newsroom in Pristina in the morning, got into a blue Zastava car and drove off.

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