U.S. analyst: Recognition "not as expected"
23 March 2008 | 12:35 | Source: VOA, Tanjug WASHINGTON -- The recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration is not going as expected, an independent U.S. analyst says. This, John Zavales told the Voice of America, comes despite Washington's "international lobbying". Zavales told the VOA that the protests in Belgrade and in northern Kosovo indicated that Kosovo's unilateral independence would cause instability in Serbia, Kosovo and the region. "All in all, perhaps just about 50 countries will recognize Kosovo, out of the 192 UN members, which is not even one-third, and this certainly is not significant support, despite U.S. international lobbying for the independence of Kosovo," Zavales was quoted. Zavales said that the unilateral declaration will have consequences on the secessionist movements in the world, and quoted Spain's concerns over the Basque region, and the concerns of Turkey, Iraq and Syria over their Kurdish minority. "It is interesting that just a day after recognizing Kosovo's independence, Turkey sent thousands of troops to northern Iraq and implemented an operation against Kurdish separatists and rebels, which the United States supported," Zavales said, and added that "there are also the cases of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhasia and South Ossetia". "So, if the goal of the Western policy was to deconstruct the concept of statehood, reform the idea of sovereignty and create semi-states, then the support to Kosovo's independence may be interpreted as success, since from now on there will be countries which some states will recognize and some will not," Zavales concluded.
