BELGRADE, July 5. /TASS/. The director of the Serbian office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, on Tuesday said the international community should put pressure on Pristina after the prime minister of the unrecognized nation of Kosovo threatened to attack Serbs.
"You see what is happening, you see that we are sliding into a serious conflict," he told reporters. "In late September - early October, [Prime Minister of the unrecognized Kosovo Albin] Kurti announced a big attack on the Serbs, so I once again urge the international community to take this into account and put the necessary pressure on Pristina, because it can do it. We have seen many times: when the West insists, Pristina implements a lot."
Earlier, Kurti said that Serbs living in the autonomous Serbian province need to re-register their cars according to the rules of the unrecognized state by September 30. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier that Pristina plans to ban entry to the region from September 30 using Serbian internal documents, as well as with license plates issued by the Serbian authorities.
Pristina's previous attempt to ban Serbs from entering in Serbian license plated cars resulted in a serious escalation of the conflict. On September 20, 2021, hundreds of Kosovo police officers, including snipers, occupied the Jarine and Brnjak checkpoints. The Kosovars began to remove license plates from Serbian cars, replacing them with plates of the unrecognized nation and charging a fee of 5 euros for that. In response, the Serbs blocked the checkpoint and began mass protests. Ten days later, Belgrade and Pristina reached an agreement on de-escalation in North Kosovo, agreeing to set up a working group to work on a long-term solution for the issue of vehicle plates for the residents of North Kosovo, which is populated mostly by Serbs.