President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia told Breitbart News exclusively that he and everyone in Serbia and Eastern Europe fears what may happen to Christians and Serbs in Kosovo after the removal of troops guarding a bridge, and that he is calling on Washington and NATO to step in to help fix the situation before things spiral out of control.
“I am afraid, and everyone is afraid,” Vucic told Breitbart News on Wednesday. “That is why we will beg and ask. It won’t be hard for me to phone everyone, even if I have to call Washington, to help with this issue… Enough with the persecution of the Serbian and Christian population in Kosovo and Metohija, and I believe that the people in Washington will understand that.”
Vucic previously sat down with Breitbart News for an extended exclusive interview in Belgrade–Serbia’s capital–back in May.
Vucic’s statement comes amid withdrawal of NATO forces guarding a bridge called Ibar Bridge in northern Kosovo that has been closed to vehicular traffic and has been guarded by NATO forces called the Kosovo Force, or KFOR for short. The bridge essentially marks the boundary between the predominantly Albanian Muslim south of the city of Mitrovica and the predominantly Serbian Christian north—and Vucic fears the opening of the bridge to vehicular traffic may end up leading to the Christian population being under attack.
The bridge is open to pedestrian traffic so people can cross it if they want to, but vehicular traffic reopening might quickly intensify interactions between people on the two sides. KFOR forces announced earlier in August that they would be beginning a gradual transition of its permanent presence from the Ibar Bridge and instead that is handing over day-to-day security responsibilities to the local Kosovo Police—although KFOR has said it is going to retain a visible presence in northern Kosovo.
Vucic has been sounding the alarm worldwide, calling everyone from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to European Union leaders and other European officials to leaders in Washington, as well asking for this decision to be paused and reversed and to keep KFOR in charge of the bridge to protect the Serbian Christians on the other side of it.
Serbia has snap elections coming up in mid to late October, and there are still some major decisions on the horizon regarding Kosovo’s future, as well as the region awaits a judgement coming down in mid-September from the Hague on the crimes-against-humanity case against former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci. Many people believe Thaci was wrongly targeted—by the very same Jack Smith who later came directly after American President Donald Trump—because Thaci had agreed to work with Trump in Trump’s first term to find a longterm solution to the issues between Serbia and Kosovo.
Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti—who endorsed Democrat Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election here in the United States—has been so controversial that everyone from even the Biden administration to the Trump administration to NATO and more have condemned him. Ric Grenell, who was acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in Trump’s first term and also oversaw the Serbia-Kosovo talks back then, told Breitbart News on Wednesday that Kurti cannot be trusted.
“Albin Kurti has been condemned by NATO, the Europeans and both the Biden and Trump Administrations because he unilaterally creates chaos and instability,” Grenell told Breitbart News in a statement on Wednesday. “America has never seen Kosovo with such a fascist leader. I’ve regularly been to the northern part of Kosovo where many Serbs make their homes and I’m concerned, once again, by the current situation unfolding. People who believe differently should be able to live next to each in peace, but they also deserve politicians who don’t work to destabilize delicate situations.”
It is unclear what Washington or Brussels may do here moving forward. Breitbart News reached out to U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and his team at the U.S. mission to NATO for comment on the matter but has not received a response by press time.
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