http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2007&mm=07&dd=12&nav_category=92&nav_id=42384
Russia rejects latest Kosovo draft
12 July 2007 | 12:28 -> *20:34* | Source: Beta, AP, Interfax
*MOSCOW, HELSINKI -- Russia has rejected the fifth U.S. – EU sponsored
draft UN resolution on the future Kosovo status.
* Beta news agency reports from Moscow that Russian Foreign Minster
Sergei Lavrov described the proposed resolution as in essence being the
same as previous drafts, based on the same status plan for the
province’s supervised independence backed by Western countries.
"The problem of a decision on the independence of Kosovo has not been
taken off the agenda," Lavrov told journalists Thursday.
Lavrov added that behind the diplomatic rhetoric lay a conclusion that
UN Kosovo Envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan should be implemented if the
proposed 120 days of renewed talks between Belgrade and Priština failed
to produce a compromise.
Earlier Thursday, Russia indicated it will need "several days" to study
the draft, according to a foreign ministry official's statement.
"We have received a new draft resolution, and our experts are carefully
studying it now. There is no need to hurry here.”
“What matters most is not the speed but the quality of analysis,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov told Interfax.
He added that "several days are needed to study the document."
In a bid to win Russian support, Western nations revised a resolution to
call for four months of intensive negotiations between Priština and
Belgrade without any promise of independence if talks fail, according to
a text obtained Wednesday.
Russia had dismissed the previous draft as unacceptable.
The now defunct version also called for four months of negotiations
between the two sides on the province's future status that would have
authorized an automatic road to independence if there was no agreement,
unless the UN Security Council decided otherwise.
“Latest draft – last attempt to win Russia over”
The latest U.S.-EU sponsored draft resolution is the limit to which the
West is ready to stretch its concessions toward Moscow.
The draft in question that currently circulates in the UN Security
Council does not mention the status of Kosovo, while Serbia’s
sovereignty over the province confirmed in the UN Resolution 1244
remains the most debatable issue, Priština daily Koha Ditore writes in
its Thursday edition.
The newspaper quoted its diplomatic sources at the United Nations as
saying that the EU and U.S. devised the document so as to win over
Russia’s support.
“We gave our maximum and we all agree that, should this draft fail as
well, other steps have to be taken.”
“However, we are still optimistic that the agreement with Russia over
the latest draft can be reached,” the sources said.
They added that Ahtisaari’s blueprint would remain Plan B if the talks
between Belgrade and Priština proved fruitless.
According to them, Moscow’s reaction is what everyone is now awaiting.
Nonetheless, Koha’s sources said that Russia already gave a tacit
consent for the replacement of the UN mission in Kosovo with that of the
EU.
Ahtisaari: Russia weakening its position by Kosovo stance
Russia would diminish its international stature by blocking negotiations
over Kosovo's future status, the UN envoy overseeing the talks said in
an interview published Thursday.
"It is too small an issue to give Russia a possibility to stress its
power. Rather than strengthening its international position, Russia only
weakens it by this," UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari told Finnish newspaper
Lansi-Savo.
In April, Ahtisaari recommended Kosovo be granted internationally
supervised independence - a proposal supported by the province's ethnic
Albanians, but rejected by Serbia and its traditional ally Russia.
In a bid to win Russian support, Western nations have revised a UN
resolution to call for intensive negotiations between Kosovo's ethnic
Albanians and Serbs without a promise of independence if talks fail.
Earlier Thursday veto-wielding Russia said it needed time to study the
new UN draft solution.
"Now it (Russia) can cause the U.N. real problems unless the Security
Council is able to come to a clear conclusion," Ahtisaari was quoted as
saying.
"In that case, the situation would become very difficult to handle in
all respects."
Ahtisaari dismissed concerns that the province's ethnic Albanian leaders
could declare independence unilaterally if the council did not approve a
path to independence.
"I don't think they really consider that. Independence must take place
in a coordinated way," Ahtisaari said.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
