Petkovic: Pristina has rejected invitation to November 7 round of dialogue

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic confirmed to Tanjug on Monday Pristina had rejected an invitation to a new round of technical dialogue between chief negotiators scheduled for November 7, while Belgrade had accepted it.

In an interview to Tanjug on Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the new round of dialogue had been slated for November 6 or 7 in Brussels but that the "other side" had not accepted that.

Petkovic said EU special envoy Miroslav Lajcak had emailed the invitation on October 30.

"Belgrade immediately responded affirmatively to that invitation by email on November 2 and added that our delegation would come to Brussels for discussions in view of the significance of continuing the dialogue towards de-escalation and stabilisation of the situation on the ground. However, Pristina and its negotiator Besnik Bislimi simply turned down that invitation. That is why we were informed by the EU on November 3 that tomorrow's meeting in Brussels has simply been cancelled," Petkovic explained.

He said Pristina and Bislimi had thus demonstrated they were not interested in dialogue, normalisation and de-escalation.

"It should now be clear to everyone Pristina is devoted exclusively to terror against the Serbs, to threats, escalation and to sparking new crises, rather than to dialogue. While rejecting participation in discussions, (Pristina's PM) Albin Kurti continues to threaten the Serbs with additional ethnic Albanian police forces, which he says will not stop neither in the south nor the north (of Kosovo-Metohija)," Petkovic said.

As opposed to Kurti's militant rhetoric, Belgrade is doing everything in its power to ensure peace and protect the Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija while trying, as it has in the past, to be a constructive and credible party in the dialogue, firmly committed to solving all issues through negotiations, Petkovic also said.