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US threatens withdrawal of troops from Kosovo if tax is not suspended GazetaExpress 3 minutes _____ Reliable sources told Gazeta Express that the US Principal Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council John Erath and Director for European Affairs at National Security Council William Berkley, during their meetings with Kosovo institutional leaders have threatned with withdrawal of US troops from Kosovo. “They threatened that the US might withdraw its troops from Kosovo as they did in Syria,” a source who attended the meetings said. The two envoys of the US President, Donald Trump, held a record number of meetings on Wednesday and Thursday with all Kosovo political leaders, and in all meetings urged Pristina officials to suspend a 100 percent tax imposed on all Serbian and Bosnia-Herzegovina goods. The US national security officials met on Wednesday Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and president Hashim Thaci. Haradinaj was seen leaving the meeting earlier and in a Facebook post he said that the tax will not be suspended. The President issued a press release confirming that the US senior officials asked suspension of tax and urged on Kosovo government to revoke the decision which was introduced in November last year. The President Thaci has paid a surprise visit to the private house of the opposition leader, Isa Mustafa, to discuss the tax issue. Thaci met the US national security officials also on Thursday morning and in a press release after the meeting said that all members of the Negotiation Team in dialogue with Serbia have agreed “to listen the US advice and suspend the tax.” But co-head of Negotiation Team and head of opposition party of Social Democrats, PSD, Shpend Ahmeti, refuted Thaci’s claims saying that he disagrees with suspension of tax. “The state delegation made no comments on suspension of tax. There are stances of political entities which are already known to public opinion. Furthermore, I have not made any comment during today’s or other meetings. We just explained to to the US officials on why the tax was imposed,” Ahmeti said. The other co-head of the state delegation and head of junior coalition partner, Fatmir Limaj, has softened his stance on the tax after meeting the US officials, who until now supported Haradinaj in keeping the tax despite the US and EU advice to do the opposite. Limaj said that the US advice on resumption of dialogue with Serbia should be taken seriously. On Thursday the US delegation met some members of parliament of the opposition parties, and ignored the representatives of the opposition party of Vetevendosje. /GazetaExpress/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "serbia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/serbia. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
