Chris Murphy, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated that the US should participate “aggressively” in the Balkans and blamed the Kosovo authorities for the present tensions in the country’s north.
“We have to engage aggressively in the Balkans to protect the peace, because right now we can’t afford to put out real fires in that region,” Murphy said after returning to Washington after a Balkan visit.
Tensions have been high in the north of Kosovo since the Kosovo Police assisted the Albanian mayors of three Serb-majority towns – Zveçan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavi – in entering municipal facilities on May 26, despite local citizens’ opposition.
On May 29, their insurrection erupted into a deadly battle with personnel of the NATO operation, KFOR.
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the Kosovo government for “escalating tensions in the north and increasing instability.”
Murphy agreed with Blinken that the crisis might have been addressed by negotiation rather than force when he met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina on May 22.
“He shouldn’t have moved so quickly with the decision to take those [municipal] buildings,” Murphy added.
“He could wait and try to resolve this through mediators like the United States,” remarked a US lawmaker.
According to him, this position provided Russia with the opportunity to provoke riots, says Rel.
“Russia is playing a game in the Balkans.” It attempts to sow dissension and conflict. “She hopes for conflict in the Balkans, a real kinetic conflict that will divert attention away from the conflict in Ukraine,” Murphy added.
Murphy expressed optimism that if the situation in northern Kosovo settles down, people would focus on the execution of the Ohrid Agreement, which calls for the restoration of ties between Pristina and Belgrade.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Kurti claimed that he had spoken with US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, as well as Senators Chris Murphy, Pete Ricketts, and Jeanne Shaheen, and that he had reiterated his willingness “to work with the US to reduce tensions” in Kosovo’s north.
“This [de-escalation] requires an immediate end to Belgrade-sponsored mob violence against security officials until new elections are held in those municipalities,” Kurti stated in a tweet.
International efforts to de-escalate tensions in Kosovo have stepped up, but Serbs continue to demonstrate against Albanian mayors of communities in the country’s north.
Their demands include that these mayors, as well as the special units of the Kosovo Police, leave communities with a Serbian majority following the April 23 elections.
Albin Kurti, Kosovo’s prime minister, rejected them in a speech on May 31, but left open the potential of new municipal elections.
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