French President Emmanuel Macron declared that Kosovo\u2019s authorities \u201cmust take accountability for the increased tensions\u201d in the north of Kosovo, ever since the newly elected Albanian mayors took to their offices in the Serb-majority municipalities.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava, Macron said Kosovo officials bear \u201cresponsibility\u201d following clashes this week, where 30 KFOR peacekeeping soldiers sustained injuries.<\/p>\n
His comments are in coordination with the statements of the United States and other QUINT countries, which blamed the Government of Kosovo for the tense situation in the north of the country.<\/p>\n
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly condemned the actions of the Government of Kosovo, which, according to him, are escalating the situation in the north and are increasing the instability there.<\/p>\n
Blinken said that these actions were taken \u201cagainst the advice of the United States and Kosovo\u2019s European partners\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even the EU\u2019s head of diplomacy Josep Borrell said that Kosovo must immediately suspend all police actions in the municipal buildings in the north, as \u201cthe first step towards de-escalation of tensions, until the violent protesters are stopped\u201d.<\/p>\n
On May 26th<\/sup>, the Kosovo Police assisted the newly elected mayors in Zubin Potok, Zve\u010dan and Leposavi\u0107 to enter municipal offices in the northern municipalities of Kosovo.<\/p>\n The escalation in the north culminated this Monday, when KFOR peacekeeping troops intervened in Zve\u010dan \u201cto avoid clashes between parties and minimize the risk of escalation\u201d, and were attacked by several violent protesters, which the Government of Kosovo called \u201cSerbian criminal mobs\u201d.<\/p>\n 30 KFOR soldiers sustained injuries during these clashes, prompting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to announce the deployment of 700 additional troops in Kosovo.<\/p>\n Albanian mayors were elected in the April 23rd<\/sup> special local elections in the four northern municipalities of Kosovo, largely boycotted by the Serb community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French President Emmanuel Macron declared that Kosovo\u2019s authorities \u201cmust take accountability for the increased tensions\u201d in the north of Kosovo, ever since the newly elected Albanian mayors took to their offices in the Serb-majority municipalities. Speaking at the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava, Macron said Kosovo officials bear \u201cresponsibility\u201d following clashes this week, where 30 KFOR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[2471,1162,817,150,243,151,1657,791,2203,958,301],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n