Vucic: Discussions with US can produce more results in dialogue with Pristina than discussions with EU

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday evening Belgrade could achieve more in the dialogue with Pristina through discussions with the US than through discussions with the EU.

"I am saying that to you in the most open way possible because those people (the US) - at least some of them - are trying to look at things realistically. Because they look at things in Serbia with more understanding," Vucic told the host of an RTS talk show in an interview.

He said there were also people in the US who were openly against Serbia, such as Senator Bob Memendez, Pristina's lobbyist who has been charged with bribery and a corruption offence also involving three New Jersey-based businessmen.

"Menendez, who has been accused of theft and crime and who has received all our opponents also from here, is the biggest pro-Albanian lobbyist after Elliott Engel and was preventing us from buying Hummers at favourable prices. We have now bought and received those Hummers, and 66 of 118 have arrived, but that is not the only thing," Vucic said.

He noted that Serbia-US bilateral ties had improved in many areas in the past years but that clashes that had taken place in Kosovo-Metohija on Sunday were a threat to that relationship.

"We did not need that in our relationship with America but (Pristina's PM Albin) Kurti, of course, did," Vucic concluded.