PanARMENIAN.Net
Contact Group representatives open Kosovo talks
10.08.2007 15:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A new effort is due to begin to find a solution to
the long-term political status of Kosovo.
Envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia will
arrive in Belgrade for talks with Serbian political leaders.
They will then travel to Kosovo for talks with ethnic Albanian
leaders.
The UN Security Council failed last month to find consensus on the
Serbian province’s future. Its majority ethnic Albanian population
wants independence.
The troika will visit Belgrade and hold talks with political leaders,
including Serbia’s president and prime minister.
The EU representative of the troika, the German diplomat Wolfgang
Ischinger, said they would not be making any new proposals, but would
be seeing whether the Serbian and Kosovo-Albanian sides had any chance
of finding agreement over the long-term status of Kosovo.
`I think, at this stage, let’s get through this 120 days. The position
of the United States is clear. President Bush announced it in Tirana,
as you’ve noted. That position is not going to change, we stand firmly
beside it. But the task immediately ahead is to get the two parties to
lay out their final ideas, proposals, suggestions, and bring this
matter to a conclusion before December 10,’ said U.S. envoy Frank
Wisner. Nations can become independent without permission of the UN
Security Council, he noted.
Ethnic Albanians want Kosovo to become independent. Serbs want the
province to remain a part of Serbia.
A UN proposal to provide a form of supervised independence was blocked
at the UN Security Council last month by Russia, which is a close ally
of Serbia.
The current round of talks is due to end in December, but Serbia and
Russia have said there should be no time limit.
International officials in Kosovo have expressed concern that if the
issue is not resolved in the near future, the security situation in
the province could deteriorate.
Many believe the talks chaired by the troika could be the last
opportunity to find an agreement between the two sides.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress