Daciq: U.S. ordered Kurt to form association

Serbia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic, said the United States of America has ordered Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that it must form the Association of Serb majority municipalities.

American officials have said earlier that both Kosovo and Serbia must fulfill all obligations taken during dialogue on normalising relations.

“Pristina is used to being the Western favourite and has not faced threats so far. What the Americans have said, you cannot hear from the mouth of Europeans”, Dacic told Serbia's Prva Television.

As Serbian news agency Beta reports, he estimated tensions in northern Kosovo were caused by the authorities' unilateral “actions in Pristina”.

Therefore, instead of normalisation in Kosovo, we have escalation of violence”, Dacic said.

He added that the new elections in the four majority Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo are solutions, but that now “is more important to calm the” situation.

Dacic said Belgrade's goal is for Serbs to have their rights.

“We are willing to protect our people, but we hope there will be no need for this”, Dachic said.

The international diplomatic community, from the United States, France, as well as other states of the QUINT states, have made the Government of Kosovo guilty of straining the situation in the country's north.

Tensions in northern Kosovo increased since May 26th, when Kosovo Police helped Albanian mayors of majority Serb municipalities enter municipal offices, despite resistance by local residents.

On May 29th, the clashes between Serb protesters opposing KFOR mayors and soldiers in Zvecan 30 soldiers remained wounded, as did dozens of protesters.

NATO has said it is ready to send more troops to Kosovo to calm violence in the country's northern, inhabited by Serb majority, coalition chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

He added that the first 700 reinforcements are already on their way to Kosovo.

The new Albanian mayors of northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviq have emerged from the extraordinary 23 April elections, which have been boycotted by the Serb community.