The U.S. assistant secretary with strong warning: Cause of unrest in the North means confronting NATO

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien has warned Kosovo and Serbia on Monday that causing riots in northern Kosovo implies confronting NATO.

It is important that both sides understand that, if any turmoil occurs in the north, it means confronting NATO”, O'Brien told reporters.

He said Kosovo's north should be calm and secure so that Kosovo and Serbia can mark political progress on their path to the European Union.

The situation in Kosovo's north, the Serb-run populated country, continues to be tense since the beginning of this year, when local Serbs opposed Albanian mayors in the four Serb majority municipalities that emerged from Serb boycotted elections in April.

On September 24th, the situation escalated after Kosovo police were attacked by an armed group of Serbs in the village of Banjska in Zvecan, where police officer Africa Bulnjaku was killed. Three Serb attackers were also killed during the subsequent clashes.

Kosovo has blamed Serbia for the attack, but Belgrade has denied involvement. O'Brien's comments come at a time when NATO is considering increasing the permanent presence in Kosovo through its peacekeeping mission, KFOR.

O'Brien added that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will talk about increasing tensions in the Western Balkans during the two-day meeting of NATO foreign affairs ministers on 28 November and 29 November at the alliance headquarters in Brussels.

Blinken will also represent the United States at a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSBE) in Skopje, Northern Macedonia.

For the possibility of a more permanent increase in NATO's presence in Kosovo, Stoltenberg also spoke during a visit to Pristina on November 20th.

Currently, there are 4,687 troops in Kosovo under KFOR's peacekeeping mission.

Last week, Secretary General NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, promised that the Western military alliance would do everything to preserve peace in the Western Balkan region.

Stoltenberg sent a special message to Serbia and Kosovo to advance in the process of normalising reports, mediating by the European Union.

“We invite Belgrade and Pristina to engage in dialogue, supported by the EU, in trust, and we also believe that the new proposal for the Association of Serb majority municipalities can be an important step for dialogue and that this process will be more constructive”, he said.

During a visit to Pristina on November 20th, which was under a Balkan tour, Stoltenberg said the addition of the military presence in Kosovo with 1,000 troops representing the largest deployment in the last years of the coalition shows how seriously the alliance takes the violence that erupted in Kosovo last months.

“We, indeed, are investing in the security of this region, because the security of people in this region, stability in this region, matters to our security”, he said. / REL