Ex-president says he wouldn't give Pristina UN chair

Ex-president says he wouldn't give Pristina UN chair

"And the truth is I said - responding to a suggestion made by a journalist in her question - that in the circumstances when Kosovo is sliding towards independence, after the signed Brussels Agreement, if I were in (President) Vucic's place I would consider even that, as well as some other solutions, in order to avoid the act of formal recognition."

Tadic further stated that "unfortunately this act is ever more certain."

"In the wake the Kosovo policy of these authorities, we need to save what can still be saved. Therefore, that even such a solution should perhaps be considered today is the consequence of Vucic's Kosovo policy - so it is extremely hypocritical of Vucic to wonder why I mentioned it today, instead of during my presidential term," Tadic said.

He added that he would "never bring Serbia into this situation" - because he "knows exactly where the red lines of the Kosovo policy are."

"Vucic should take the responsibility for pursuing a Kosovo policy in the direction of reducing the options for preserving the Serb interests, instead of lecturing others about courage," Tadic, said, noting it was "especially hypocritical" of Vucic to speak about his courage in doing something that his former party "cursed and made death threats over."

Tadic also pointed out that Vucic came to power promising to annul everything that the former government had agreed with Pristina.

"I did not think at the time about UN chair as a solution, because I did not conduct a policy that narrows the maneuvering space for the Serbian side, but one which extended it without endangering the process of EU integration," he said.

Tadic recalled that his "four-point plan" outlined in 2011, when negotiations with Pristina began, envisaged "judicial, legislative and executive power for the north of Kosovo, and personal autonomy for Serbs living south of the Ibar, rather than accepting the legal system of an independent Kosovo - which is the basis of Vucic's and Dacic's Brussels Agreement."

"My plan also established the legal authority of the Serbian Orthodox Church over our monasteries and protection of the property of Serbia. But since, after the Brussels Agreement, most UN members recognized Kosovo's independence, and since the Constitution and laws of Serbia have not been applied even in the north of Kosovo after the SNS came to power in 2012, we have found ourselves in a new political reality today," Tadic said.

He assessed that "those who created it are responsible for this reality, not those who state it."

"Even if he wanted to, Vucic is no longer be able to speak the elementary truth. Not only does he publish a misinterpretation of my statement, but he also calls it 'participation' in his dialogue," Tadic said.