http://euobserver.com/9/24150
EUobserver.com 20:32 EU Central Time 29.05.2007
West may agree to delay Kosovo solution, Russia says
29.05.2007 - 17:42 CET | By Andrew Rettman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russia is suggesting the EU and US may agree to
put off
a decision on the final status of Kosovo pending further negotiations
between
Belgrade and Pristina, despite earlier promises to Kosovo Albanians they
would
have independence by June.
"We should find a text that would allow all the parties [including Serbia
and
Kosovo] to continue to work on the acceptable terms of a solution," the
head of
the Europe desk at the Russian foreign ministry, Sergei Ryabkov, told
press in
Brussels on Tuesday (29 May).
"If this is accepted, we would be more than happy to continue working on
the
language [of a UN resolution]. There are some signs that this is the
case," he
added, following UN talks in New York last week and a telephone call
between
Bush and Putin on Monday.
The EU and US three weeks ago put forward a draft UN resolution that
deletes an
earlier UN resolution 1244 on Serbia's territorial integrity, paves the
way for
Kosovo to declare independence, join the UN and develop its own army
under EU
and NATO supervision.
At the time, senior US diplomat Nicholas Burns said Washington expected
the deal
to be adopted in late May or early June. Kosovo Albanian prime minister
Agim
Ceku also predicted that the region would gain independence in a matter
of
"weeks."
But Russia has threatened to veto the text, while presenting new ideas of
its
own. A Russian official told EUobserver Moscow would only agree to a UN
resolution that calls for further talks under international supervision
between
Belgrade and Pristina on Kosovo's status.
It would also agree to a new resolution that calls for the full
implementation
of resolution 1244 on the rights of the ethnic Serb minority, with a new
EU
police mission and the old NATO force to stay and keep the peace until
1244 has
been fulfilled.
"There is no political force in Russia, on the left or right, that would
accept
Kosovo independence, at least not right now," the head of the Russian
parliament's foreign affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said on
Tuesday.
"This is not an urgent decision that we need to have at any price by a
certain
date."
Will G8 see a deal?
Publicly, the US, the European Commission and EU states say they continue
to
back the draft UN resolution on Kosovo independence, with the G8 summit
in
Germany on 6 June held up as the latest potential date for a breakthrough
international agreement.
The official EU and US line is that fresh talks between Serbia and Kosovo
are
pointless, since months-long negotiations last year under the supervision
of UN
envoy Martti Ahtisaari did not bring the two parties any closer and since
further delays could see radical Albanian groups turn to violence.
But some western diplomats are beginning to doubt whether any deal will
emerge
before summer. "I'm in Pristina and the local press is talking about
September
as a time for the solution," an EU official said. "I don't sense any
tension,
any potential for instability," he added.
"There's no guarantee there will be a solution by the G8," a UN official
also
travelling in the region said. "They [the Kosovo Albanian government] are
slowly
preparing the people for additional delay. They went forward quite fast
with the
dates, and now they have to go back."
A Kosovo official predicted that the final UN resolution will be so vague
on the
issue of Kosovo's status it will enable everybody to claim victory.
"Afterward,
Kosovo will declare independence and the US will recognise it. But Russia
will
say they never authorised this and Serbia will reject it."
Croatian report rebuffed
Meanwhile, another element of uncertainty was added this week by reports
in
leading Croatian daily Jutarnji List on Monday that the US and Russia
were close
to a deal that would involve Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo and US
side-promises not to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia.
The report cited Russian officials "close to" president Putin. But EU, UN
and
Russian officials poured cold water on the information on Tuesday. "I
would take
it with a big pinch of salt," an EU official said. "It looks like
provocation or
wishful thinking," a Russian diplomat said.
Kosovo is legally part of Serbia but has been controlled by the UN and
NATO
since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop a crackdown by Serb nationalist
forces
against ethnic Albanians. The region today is home to 1.8 million ethnic
Albanians and over 100,000 ethnic Serbs.
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