Irritation over Pristina’s position grows among Western diplomats
Western diplomats are growingly irritated by the refusal of Kosovo Albanian authorities to accept the six-point UN plan on the reconfiguration of Unmik
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, November 17, 2008
In Brussels, the EU has announced it was still hoping for a solution despite the fact that last week's informal deadline was broken, while in Washington, the US said it was sending Assistant State Secretary Daniel Fried to Pristina.
Diplomats from the Contact Group member-countries without Russia have sent message to Kosovo officials that if they do not accept the six-item proposal within the plan for the reconfiguration of the international presence in Kosovo, they might put at risk "the territorial integrity of Kosovo".
The Kosovo Albanian-language daily Koha Ditore reports that the message was conveyed to representatives of the Kosovo interim institutions at one of the last meetings held in the past seven days.
Another Kosovo Albanian-language daily Zeri cites unnamed sources that at a meeting which took place late on Thursday and was attended by Sejdiu, Taci and representatives of the group of five Western nations, the Albanian leaders requested that the plan be completely removed from the negotiation table and attention focused on modalities of the deployment of EULEX.
On the other hand, the representatives of the EU and the five countries of the Contact Group do not relinquish their position that the six-item plan is the only possibility for the beginning of the EULEX mission in Kosovo.
In Berlin, German Minister of State Gunter Gloser informed the Bundestag Foreign Affairs committees' members of the position Germany had in respect to the deployment of EULEX, but his message, as the radio reported, was aimed at the authorities in Pristina, rather than the officials of these two committees.
"It is Kosovo that required this mission, and this is why it now has to create prerequisites for the start of the operation", Gloser said.
