A month after talks on the future of Kosovo foundered at the UN Security Council, envoys from the US, the EU and Russia began a three-day visit to the region on Friday in an attempt to kick-start a new round of negotiations.
But politicians and diplomats in the region say they are skeptical that an agreement can be reached, leaving Western governments with the dilemma of whether or not to independently recognize the breakaway province as its own state -- without the endorsement of the Security Council.
Diplomats say new talks could lead to a compromise between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership, which wants independence, and the Serbian government in Belgrade, thereby bridging a substantial rift between Russia, Serbia's main ally, and Western governments over Kosovo's future.
Russia has rejected a UN plan that would have given Kosovo independence, though under the supervision of a European-led mission. Russia has threatened to veto the plan in the Security Council, and has insisted that any settlement must be supported by both the Serbs and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.
Serbia is adamant that the province, which is now administered by the UN, remain a part of its territory.
The envoys met with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica for more than an hour in Belgrade on Friday, but declined to speak to reporters afterward. They were scheduled to spend yesterday and today in Pristina, Kosovo's capital.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the UN, has set a deadline of Dec. 10 to conclude the latest negotiations between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
HARDENED POSITIONS
Both sides are sticking to hardened positions. Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of the population of Kosovo, yet Serbia -- which has sovereignty over Kosovo, though only in name -- says it is ready to give the region substantial autonomy, but not full independence.
However, speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Pristina, Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku said,"Any proposal other than independence is unacceptable,"
This month, Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, appeared to adopt a more conciliatory tone, saying his government was ready to compromise by offering Kosovo rights associated with sovereignty, like membership in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The UN has administered Kosovo since 1999, when Serbian forces -- who were accused of committing atrocities against ethnic Albanians -- were forced to leave Kosovo after a 78-day NATO-led bombing campaign. The arrangement ended a two-year conflict between Albanian insurgents and the government of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was the dominant part.
On Thursday, the EU's envoy Wolfgang Ischinger put the burden squarely on the two sides.
"We are offering Belgrade and Pristina another opportunity -- maybe the last opportunity -- to work out a negotiated solution," he told the BBC.
But some diplomats, who have been involved in the negotiations since they began in February of last year, say that ultimately a settlement will have to be imposed.
"There is nothing to negotiate," said a Western diplomat in Pristina, speaking on the condition of anonymity "There is no compromise to be found."
A stumbling block to an imposed settlement is that a number of European governments are unwilling to support a solution not supported by the UN.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of