“Serbia will not agree to Kosovo in UN”

Source: Beta, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dačić said late Tuesday that Serbia would certainly never consent to Kosovo "getting a seat" in the UN.

Ivica Dačić (Tanjug, file)

He explained that Serbia would never accept it unless this was the result of a comprehensive solution in line with national and state interests.
Dačić said it was illusory to comment on the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) demand that he resign after he allegedly stated he was prepared to give Kosovo a seat in the UN.

"It is illusory to comment on accusations which are divorced from reality. Until now at least, no one had accused me of capitulation, maybe just of excessive aggression. I did not offer the Albanians a seat in the UN, but others did," the prime minister told reporters.

He reiterated that Serbia wanted a comprehensive settlement for Kosovo, which meant that everything must be discussed openly.

"I have said there is no issue I would not discuss if we are looking for a comprehensive solution. We will not consider a partial solution. We are not thinking about giving our consent, but Serbia cannot block Kosovo's UN membership. For this we need the help of our allies Russia and China," he said.

Dačić sent a message to Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci that it would be better if he talked about northern Kosovo instead of the UN.

He noted that he did not expect any significant decisions to be made at a meeting with Thaci and added that it was ”illusory to mention Kosovo’s EU membership”.

Dačić said that the most difficult issues were issues of parallelism of institutions and specificity of Serbs in Kosovo and their institutions, adding that those issues were yet to be discussed.

“I expect this to be a topic that we will need to discuss several times but it is important for the dialogue to go on, that it is not interrupted because positions can only be presented through the dialogue and a solution can only be found through the dialogue,” he explained.

He stressed that Serbia proposed a comprehensive solution for the Kosovo issue and that it was possible to talk about all topics that would stem from such a solution.

“If there is no comprehensive solution, if there are no talks about the status, about a final comprehensive solution then it is illusory to talk and for anyone to mention the issue of Kosovo’s membership in the UN because Serbia will never consent to it. There is no dilemma here, our state strategy is clear,” Dačić noted.

He reiterated that partial solutions were unacceptable to Serbia.

“This is an essential issue, the issue of UN membership and Serbia will certainly not accept it,” the prime minister said.