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Vucic expects serious pressure on Serbia to make it recognize Kosovo independence

"We are in for a difficult time on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, but we will fight. I promised this to our people in Kosovo and Metohija," the Serbian President said

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic REUTERS/Marton Monus

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic

© REUTERS/Marton Monus

BELGRADE, December 30. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday said that high-ranking representatives of different countries could come to the country in January to put pressure on Belgrade about the issue of Kosovo and Metohija.

"I expect the world’s giants to come to me in the first half of January to teach me how to reach an agreement they like. It always makes me nauseous, but I will meet them nicely and will pretend that I feel very good, how I enjoyed these wonderful conversations and so on," the Serbian president told reporters. "We are in for a difficult time on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, but we will fight. I promised this to our people in Kosovo and Metohija."

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote a joint letter to the Serbian president, urging him to make difficult decisions on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, and also sent their advisers to explore options for advancing the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. Vucic said that he had refused to accept the document that was presented to him by the EU advisers as a roadmap for resolving the conflict.

The situation in Kosovo deteriorated sharply on December 6, when the special forces of the unrecognized territory, accompanied by patrols of the European Union Mission in Kosovo, began to seize the premises of election commissions in the north of Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian population rebuffed the Kosovars, who fled across the Ibar River. On December 8, some 350 police officers from Kosovo invaded the Serb-populated north of the province in armored vehicles and blockaded the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. On 10 December, Kosovo police in Kosovska Mitrovica arrested a former Serb policeman on trumped-up charges. In response, the Serbian population took to the streets and barricaded highways in several settlements.

The government of the self-proclaimed Kosovo put its armed forces on full combat alert on December 26. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic and Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic responded by saying that the Serbian armed forces were also ordered by President Alexandar Vucic to be on full combat alert. The situation stabilized on December 28.

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