Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director Marko Djuric said today that the United States intend to launch an exit strategy for the mandate of United Nations in Kosovo and Metohija, which he perceives as an initiative for the withdrawal of UNMIK mission from that territory, Serbian media reported.

Djuric also presented to the journalists in the Government of Serbia building a document which he claims is a letter from the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley on behalf of the US Government, about the alleged launch of the exit strategy of the UN Mission in Kosovo.

He recalled that the mandate of the UN mission in Kosovo and Metohija was the return of banished Serbs and non-Albanians to Kosovo and Metohija.

“UNMIK’s withdrawal would be a recognition of failure and capitulation in the fight for some of the key goals, due to which the UN has been established-peaceful resolution of disputes, the return of displaced persons and the promotion of peace and stability,” Djuric underlined.

He said that the adoption and launching of the initiative for the withdrawal of UNMIK from Kosovo “is a veritable slap to peace efforts and a return to the policy of pressures, unilateral moves and a policy of arbitrariness and dictates”.

“Serbia will not and cannot accept such a policy. Serbia will oppose such a policy. We will consult about this and talk with our friends and partners, permanent members of the UN Security Council,” Djuric said, adding that Serbia will “fight back” using the legal and political arguments.

He reminded that the regular reporting of UNMIK to the Security Council meetings has been abolished for several months, which, he said, was “one of the rare occasions where the public was able to get to know the real situation in Kosovo and Metohija”.

“Is there a firmer proof that nothing in Kosovo and Metohija has been resolved, than the fact that this is a so-called Kosovo for which the United States is urging UNMIK to withdraw from the territory of our southern region, because it is not a member of the UN. If something was solved and if Ms. Haley was right, then Kosovo would have been a member of the UN,” Djuric explained, adding that they were not and will never be, because it depends on the decision of Belgrade.

“We will oppose this initiative in the UN, we will talk with permanent members of the Security Council, Russia and China and other UN members, we will try everything we can and with the Secretary General Guterres, at all levels, we will fight against this initiative,” Djuric said.