PRISTINA (Kosovo) – La White House announced today that it had intercepted a heavy U.S. weapons operation Serbia along the border with Kosovo, which is capable of destabilizing the entire region and not just the north of Kosovo, where the majority of the ethnic Serb population lives. This is what the spokesman for the American National Security Council stated: John Kirbyaccording to which “we are monitoring a large movement of troops stationed along Kosovo’s borders” with an “unprecedented amount of artillery, tanks and troops”: “We call on Serbia to withdraw these forces”, which “if only for their intended purpose” Size and presence are already destabilizing in themselves and are obviously a concern for everyone, including us.”
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The Banjska Crisis
A concern that adds to the alarm raised by the attack on the Kosovo police in Banjska, which the White House itself believes showed “such a level of sophistication and preparation” as it was organized with military weapons that ” “It cannot be considered an attack.” “Accidental or targeted attack” because “this type of weapon poses a threat to Kosovo, but also to international personnel,” and this primarily concerns the NATO-KFOR contingent which also includes American soldiers.
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The spiral of tension in Kosovo therefore continues to grow, and the crisis triggered by last Sunday’s lightning attack in the village of Banjska – in the north of the country, where the Serbian community lives – is leading to an earthquake that spreads far beyond this small mountain range threatens to spread beyond the Kosovo region. The Kosovo authorities are investigating after the raid by around thirty men armed to the teeth – which the vice-president of the Lista Serb, the Kosovo Serb, accused himself of this morning Milan Radoicic – They found a real arsenal in the dozens of vehicles (including some armored vehicles), in the houses and in the monastery where the commando holed up before fleeing into the forest and seeking refuge in Serbia. And in the operation launched today in three communities populated by Kosovo Serbs, agents seized weapons, vehicles, boats, drones, knives, bulletproof vests, ammunition and other attack materials, Kosovo police warn.
In the Monastery of Battle: “Now Kosovo fears the storm”
by our correspondent Paolo Brera, September 29, 2023
NATO’s reaction
The threat is so great that even the… Born has decided to respond: The Atlantic Council has ordered the deployment of new troops for its mission (KFOR) to the country in response to “deep concerns about growing tensions in northern Kosovo”. Since May we have increased KFOR’s presence and the Council has authorized additional forces to deal with the current situation.” The British Ministry of Defense has transferred command of the First Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment to the NATO reserve forces for KFOR can be deployed in Kosovo “if desired”.
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The phone call between the USA and Serbia
Today also the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, a “not easy” conversation in which “we agreed on some things but not on others,” Vucic reported. The Serbian president agreed with Blinken on the need to de-escalate tensions in Kosovo, the importance of a greater role for KFOR and, he said, the fact that the Serbian army has not been put on alert. Blinken would have instead announced possible punitive measures against Serbia: “I – reported Vucic – said: ‘You are a great country, a great power, you can do what you think should be done, but I am absolutely against it and think that “that this would be very negative””. Meanwhile, the US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivanspoke to the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmaniand reiterated the importance of dialogue.