Fried in Priština: Restart talks

Fried in Priština: Restart talks

“It is highly likely that we would have a limited amount of time on our hands for a new round of negotiations,” he said, without explaining when the talks might start and how long they would last.

By reiterating U.S. President George Bush’s statement given during his visit to Albania that Kosovo would be independent and supervised by the international community, Fried said that the international community was now facing a challenge of how to proceed in the Kosovo process.

He added that negotiations with a set deadline were one of the options, adding that Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin did not go into details of the Kosovo status issue during their July 1-2 meeting in Maine.

Fried refused to comment on Priština negotiating team’s position regarding the prospects of a new Belgrade-Priština dialogue, but he said he was “impressed with the seriousness with which the Priština negotiators approached the proposal.”

Fried’s visit came at a delicate time for Kosovo, with officials expecting the postponement of the status solution to be announced soon.

The postponement is expected to last until the fall, after which discussion between Belgrade and Priština will resume for another four to six months.

Earlier Monday, Fried said that the situation was made worse by the fact that Albanian leaders in Kosovo, specifically Kosovo President Sejdiu, after returning from Germany, said they would reject new talks with Belgrade and that there was "nothing left to discuss" regarding UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s Kosovo plan.

Fried arrived in Priština from Montenegro, where he stated that the U.S. supports a continuation of Kosovo talks for another six months, as was proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“The U.S. and the member countries of the Contact Group believe that Ahtisaari’s Kosovo plan is good for continuing discussions between Belgrade and Priština, but only if there is concrete dialogue."

"U.S. President George Bush also clearly stated that Kosovo independence will be the final outcome, a supervised independence, with protection for the Serbian community in Kosovo, its monasteries and property. That is a responsibility we take seriously,” Fried said.

Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica’s advisor Srđan Đurić said that Ahtisaari’s plan cannot be used as basis for new talks, because Serbia has already rejected it.

He told the Beta news agency that the discussions will be more useful without Ahtisaari’s document.

“It is realistic to expect that the international community will realize that new negotiations need to begin in the fall, and that should not be burdened with Ahtisaari’s unsuccessful plan,” Đurić said.