First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday delivered a speech to students at the Diplomatic Academy in Belgrade.

Dacic told them that Serbia's key foreign policy priorities are the struggle to preserve the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty, continuation of the EU negotiation process, and development of good neighborly relations.

Srpska Lista is against an initiative to revoke the Special Court and the stance of Serb political representatives about it is clear and unequivocal Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Communities and Returns, Dalibor Jevtic told representatives of French-German delegation visiting Kosovo, Serbian media reported.

Jevtic met yesterday the Germany's Envoy for South-Eastern Europe, Turkey and the EFTA States, Christian Hellbach, and the Head of the French Foreign Ministry's Western Balkans Department, Thomas Bertin.

Reactions on the statement of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) Metropolitan Amfilohije who earlier expressed concern over the way the Serbian Government is trying to untie “the Kosovo knot” do not go silent for a third day in a row, TV N1 reports today.

German and French envoys are adding to diplomatic pressure on Kosovo not to try to stop the new Specialist Chambers – which will try former Kosovo guerrillas – from coming into operation.

A joint German-French delegation met Kosovo officials on Wednesday to voice concern about recent failed attempts by Kosovo MPs to revoke the law establishing the Special Court, set up to try Kosovo Albanian war crimes.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has said in a radio interview with The Economist that 2018 is a year in which a lasting solution for Kosovo could be found.

"What we are doing now is looking for a lasting solution, so as not to leave a frozen conflict for those who will come afterward. We have a historic chance to find a sustainable solution. If we do not use this chance in 2018 we will not have another one for decades to come," Beta quoted Brnabic as telling the Economist.

Survivors of the 1999 Kosovo war and rights campaigners criticised attempts by MPs in Pristina to stop the new Specialist Chambers, which will try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.

War victims’ groups and Pristina-based rights campaigners criticised recent attempts by MPs in Pristina to revoke a law which allows the new Kosovo Specialist Chambers to operate.

The president of the Association of Missing and Kidnapped Persons from Kosovo and Metohija, Ranko Djinovic, said that repealing the law would be an “injustice”.

People can say this or that, but we see how President Aleksandar Vucic is fighting to preserve Kosovo and Metohija, said Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej.

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) spoke during liturgy he served in Banja Luka on the occasion of Serb Republic (RS) Day - and days after one of his top bishops, Amfilohije, caused a storm by expressing his fear the president's policy would lead to "the betrayal of Serbia and Kosovo".

Serbian Academy of Science and Arts (SANU) is not a party to have a political platform on Kosovo, instead it can only offer opinions of individuals, SANU President, Vladimir Kostic told Serbian media.

“Do not expect from SANU to take a joint stance on Kosovo and Metohija by over voting. This is not in the essence of the Academy. The Academy can offer opinions of individuals, and they differ to the extent present in the society,” Kostic told journalists commenting expectations from SANU in the internal dialogue on Kosovo.

“At a time when Orthodox Christians around the world are preparing to celebrate the day of birth of Jesus Christ, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are denied the right to rejoice in Christmas, to hold their ceremony/prayers and to bring in the Christmas Log,” Mayor of Mitrovica North, Goran Rakic said in a press statement, Radio Mitrovica reported.

“Every holiday in Đakovica turns into a promotion of pure hatred towards everything that is Serbian. This year is no different.

Serbia will never recognize Kosovo, Serbian Ambassador to Albania, Miroljub Zaric has said.

He made the statement during his visit to Skadar (Shkoder) for Orthodox Christmas on Sunday, and said that "Kosovo is Serbia".

"Kosovo is Serbia, to you it is independent, to us it is not. To us Kosovo is a part of the territory of Serbia and there is no possibility of us accepting an alternative. It (Kosovo) was, it is, and will be a part of Serbia," Zaric added.

However, he said, this fact does not have to influence relations between Serbia and Albania.