The appointment of Matthew Palmer as the US special envoy to the Western Balkans proves how much it is important for the American diplomacy that Kosovo and Serbia reach a long-lasting solution, a retired US Army General Ben Hodges has told the Voice of America (VOA) on Thursday, adding Belgarde and Pristina leaders should have some economic incentives to offer to their peoples "immediately" to persuade them that a solution they will reach is for their benefit.

We need to explain to the people of Kosovo and Serbia that the agreement, which they may not like, is in their best interest, said U.S. Senator Ron Johnson.

Johnson visited Belgrade and Pristina last week.

He told the Ukrainian Voice of America service that it is up to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina to decide whether they can reach an agreement.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the Voice of America that Serbia can’t recognize Kosovo in the current circumstances.

He said the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue needs to be continued to reach a compromise solution. “We can talk about everything only if it’s about a compromise. They will never get my signature to give the Albanians everything and Serbia nothing. At this moment I am the president of Serbia, you can find someone else who will accept that without a compromise, following ultimatums only,” he said.

The Presidency of the Association of Kosovo Historians ‘Ali Hadri’, the Decani branch, harshly reacted to statements by, as they assessed, an anti-Albanian priest – Abbot Sava Janjic, who has been serving in the Albanian Orthodox monastery of Decani, a monastery usurped by Serbian occupiers – since the medieval period. They gave the statement last night for the Voice of America news program.

American Balkans experts Michael Carpenter told the Voice of America that the coming elections in Kosovo and Serbia could slow down the process of reaching an agreement to normalize Belgrade-Pristina relations.

Carpenter, formerly a senior Department of Defense official for Russia, the Balkans Eurasia, said that election season is a very bad time to reach international agreements because it is a good time for people who advocate hard-line political stands.

Atlantic Council official Damon Wilson told Voice of America that the delivery of Russian armored vehicles to Serbia is harmful and irresponsible.

A country that is on its way to the European Union should not accept weapons from Moscow, the Atlantic Council Executive Vice President said, adding that the supply of Russian arms to Serbia is an attempt to obstruct the normalization of the situation in the region.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Jennifer Brush, told Voice of America that Kostunica had been notified of the attack, but had issued a police order not to respond.

The new US Ambassador to Serbia Anthony Godfrey told a Senate hearing that the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations would be his priority during his term as Washington‘s envoy.

Serbia is a political and economic leader and plays the key role in regional stability.

A White House deputy national security advisor says Kosovo's excessively high tax on goods from Serbia precludes direct U.S. involvement in normalization talks, which President Donald Trump has been pushing for since December.

See at: https://www.voanews.com/a/nsc-deputy-kosovo-s-100-tariff-on-serbian-goods-risks-decade-of-lost-progress/4951177.html

The Washington John Hopkins University’s panel “Western Balkans (WB): Managing the Challenges” dealt with the regional leaders’ real readiness to get closer to the West, adding it should more clearly criticise the WB’s regimes, the Voice of America (VOA) reported on Thursday, as carried by the FoNet news agency.