Office for Kosovo and Metohija Director Marko Djuric has said that representatives of the Serb (Srpska) List are returning to the Kosovo Assembly.

Djuric told Serbia's state broadcaster RTS that he respects their decision to "actively oppose the establishment of a Kosovo army, despite difficult political circumstances."

"Serb representatives have clearly said that they are going to the assembly to say publicly they will be against the formation of an army and that is something that should be supported," he said. The Serbian official added that political representatives of Albanians "made an effort to use the opportunity and revoke the mandates of the Serb members, because they have not been taking part in the work of the assembly for six months." "Representatives of the Serb List are in this way actually found a way for representatives of Pristina not to take away their mandates, and to publicly prevent the formation of a Kosovo army," he said. Djuric also stated that "Albanians have been trying for six months to show that Belgrade-Pristina agreements are not being implemented because Serbs are not attending parliament sessions - that was their excuse for doing nothing when it comes to establishing the Community of Serb Municipalities." The Serb List stopped taking part in the work of the assembly in Pristina in October 2016, because they were "prevented from participating in finding a just and reasonable solution for the Trepca (mining) complex." Asked about the voting in Kosovo and Metohija in Serbia's upcoming presidential elections, Djuric said that the election commission, RIK, has been organizing elections in Kosovo and Metohija in cooperation with the OSCE since 2012, and that he "does not believe it will be any different this time."