A difficult and serious ultimatum is set before Serbia when it comes to Kosovo; it is required to renounce the property of Telekom Serbia in the province, says the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić. He adds that Belgrade until Sunday has to make a decision whether to accept or not the "grotesque draft agreement on telecommunications."

Mitrovica Municipality staff led by Mayor Agim Bahtiri held a protest today calling for the immediate release of the Kosovo Police director for Mitrovica region, Nehat Thaçi, arrested last week by Serbian authorities on charges of terrorism. Bahtiri called on the government of Kosovo to suspend dialogue with Serbia until Thaçi is released from detention. “Today this is only a protest of the municipality staff but if he [Thaçi] is not released it will turn into a powerful protest”, warned Bahtiri.

BELGRADE – As Belgrade and Pristina resume talks to normalize their relations, the latter’s request for its own telephone code present a problematic precedent for China and other countries across the world, Dusan Prorokovic, former state secretary in Serbia’s Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, told Sputnik Serbia on Tuesday.

There was no visible progress or official statements late Wednesday following three days of this week's Belgrade-Pristina talks on telecommunications.

The Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija told Tanjug the talks addressed ways of transferring the property of Telekom Srbija to a daughter company to be established in Kosovo-Metohija under an agreement on telecommunications.

The news website reports on the third day of the new round of talks between the Kosovo and Serbian delegations brokered by the European Union in Brussels. Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told Indeksonline that the Kosovo delegation has a firm position on the issue of the telephone code. “Talks on the telephone code are continuing. Our position is firm. Serbia needs to send a letter to the ITU agreeing that Kosovo should get its telephone code from the ITU,” Tahiri said.

Bajram Hasani, member of the leadership of the Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) has objected the agreement for the new telephone prefix for Kosovo. Hasani said a third party, in this case Austria, should not be applying at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Kosovo’s prefix. “NISMA is against this agreement knowing that it is conditioned with application of a third state, in this case Austria, to apply for this code, which means that Kosovo would only be a user while Serbia would be the owner.

The stalling talks in Brussels on the normalization of ties between Serbia and Kosovo could grind to a virtual standstill if Kosovo’s opposition parties join in, but Nataliya Apostolova, the new head of the EU office in Kosovo, did not rule this out.

During a meeting with Edita Tahiri, who leads a Kosovo delegation at the talks, Apostolova said bringing the Kosovo opposition on board could help speed up the negotiations.

Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, said in an interview that the European Union has made it clear that the telecom agreement needs to be implemented the way the parties agreed to earlier in Brussels. However, she admitted that there are still some issues that have to be “finalized”, particularly that pertaining to dialing code for Kosovo. Tahiri said the recent reports that the site where a mosque stood in the northern part of Mitrovica is being used to construct a tennis court as part of the project for revitalization of the Ibër/Ibar bridge in Mitrovica were false.

We see the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina as a way of solving problems, and not to open some new ones, Dalibor Jevtić said commenting on the statement of Nataliya Apostolova that the opposition should be included in the Brussels negotiations.

A new round of talks between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels is scheduled for 26 September, and on the agenda are telecommunications, announced the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić.