Vucic: Serbia to protect security, dialogue takes more than one party

BELGRADE - Serbian Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday Serbia would protect the sovereignty and security of all its citizens and was committed to dialogue, but noted that dialogue took more than one party.

Speaking to Pink TV, Vucevic said Serbia would even make an extra move to preserve peace and find a political agreement to avert an escalation.

"That takes willingness by several parties. The facilitators of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue are often on Pristina's side. The situation is tense, very tense, and the atmosphere in Kosovo-Metohija is inflammable," Vucevic said.

He said he believed Kosovo-Metohija Serbs would be wise and responsible and would not fall for provocations.

"We are not afraid but we want the terror against Serbs to be stopped, through political dialogue. (Pristina PM) Albin Kurti wants to create conditions in which a survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija is impossible," Vucevic said, adding that, for that reason, Kurti was constantly generating new crises.

Kurti is creating an atmosphere in which the Serbs would say they cannot survive because neither EULEX nor KFOR are protecting them, Vucevic said.

"KFOR is neutral, but in such a manner that it is thinking about how to get the barricades removed. Everyone is dealing with the consequences when they should be dealing with the causes. Hence the fear among the Serbs and the desperation that has made them go out to the barricades," he said.

Commenting on a statement by German FM Annalena Baerbock that Belgrade's request to deploy a limited number of Serbian troops to Kosovo-Metohija under UN SC Resolution 1244 would be denied, Vucevic noted that Baerbock had assumed the right to prejudge a decision before the request had even been sent.

"We are absolutely ready to send troops. Due to the situation on the ground, Serbia wants that clause of the UN SC resolution activated to maintain the security of Serbs and Serb property, churches and monasteries," Vucevic said.

He also said any entry of Pristina's police troops into Serb municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija without consent of local mayors was a destruction of the Brussels Agreement and agreements guaranteed by the EU.