U.S. supports Belgrade-Priština dialogue, ambassador says

SOURCE: TANJUG
BELGRADE -- U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby said on Friday that the U.S. supported the Belgrade-Priština dialogue and voiced confidence that an agreement could be reached.

Michael Kirby (Beta, file)

 

Michael Kirby (Beta, file)
“The Serbian government has been putting great efforts in an attempt to achieve an agreement with Priština, and I am optimistic that an agreement could be reached and that Serbia could continue to advance toward EU membership,” Kirby told reporters in the Serbian parliament.

“The U.S. supports an agreement between Priština and Belgrade,” he said once again, adding that “any agreement requires an agreement of both parties, not just one.”

In response to the statement by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci that Priština's stands were to a great extent in accordance with the stands of the U.S. and the European Union, Kirby said that during the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and the then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Belgrade in late 2012, it was made clear that Washington “supported both sides moving together, not just one side.”

Asked to comment on media reports that Thaci first accepted the proposals that Ashton put forward to him some ten days before the eighth round of talks, and then after the meeting with U.S. official Philip Reeker, he decided to reject them, Kirby said:

“I did not take part in any talks that were allegedly held in Brussels, but I believe that an agreement, based on what happened, remains possible.”