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Serbian leader: NATO seeks to misrepresent deal on military presence in northern Kosovo

According to Vucic, NATO is trying "to forget about the second part of the agreement"

BELGRADE, December 25. /TASS/. NATO seeks to misrepresent the 2013 Brussels Agreement’s provisions concerning the presence of the Kosovo military in the northern part of the region, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic told the Pink TV channel on Tuesday.

"Kosovo’s ROSU [Regional Operational Support Unit] may only enter the northern part of Kosovo if NATO forces allow it and the Serb community gives its consent. This is the truth, but if NATO wants to violate the agreement, then it is a different matter," he said. "Our agreement implies that there will be no ROSU units, I personally took part in meetings and explained it to [then High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine] Ashton and NATO officials 500 times, I also told NATO that there would be no Albanians armed with automatic weapons in the north of Kosovo unless those two conditions were met," the Serbian president pointed out.

According to Vucic, NATO is trying "to forget the second part of the agreement," while "these are not alternating conditions" and both of them must be met. "This is the truth. Whoever says differently is a liar," the Serbian leader concluded.

The NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) claimed earlier that the ban on entering the Serb-populated northern Kosovo concerned only the Kosovo Security Force, while ROSU did not have to ask for permission to enter for they allegedly were tasked with ensuring law and order across the entire Kosovo.

The 2013 Brussels Agreement is aimed at normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina. The 15-paragraph document mostly covers issues concerning the powers of Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo. However, Pristina has not yet fulfilled the agreement.