Serbian FM: Don't come for Trepca, don't play with fire

Serbian FM: Don't come for Trepca, don't play with fire

"Everyone knows well that no one must play with fire and expect Serbia not to react. Serbia will react," Dacic told reporters in response to questions about reports of the Kosovo authorities' plans to mount a raid on a Trepca (mining complex) plant in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, Tanjug is reporting.

Dacic urged all parties involved to be careful not to provoke Serbia.

He also said Serbia would not become a part of the problem and would not join Pristina in making various unilateral decisions.

Dacic said the Kosovo assembly's platform for dialogue with Belgrade was, in fact, against dialogue and that it was an ultimatum to Serbia and that Belgrade has no intention of considering something like that, he noted.

A united appeal by the international community to Pristina to abolish its taxes on goods from Serbia has been lacking - and that's why they survive.

This is what Ivica Dacic told TV Pink earlier in the day.

He said that the United States has an interest in the revoking of the taxes and continuation of the dialogue, "because they want to gain a political plus for themselves."

"Some EU countries do not want to do this and they are constantly telling Ramush Haradinaj not to revoke the taxes. They want the dialogue to continue, and when everyone is sitting at the negotiating table, to then revoke the taxes," Dacic said.

He recalled that the UK is not condemning Pristina's moves and that their position is that there should be "no border change." Germany, too, he added, "does not agree with the change of borders, but does not support what Haradinaj is doing."

"Great Britain, in our opinion, is encouraging Haradinaj does not abolish the taxes, they don't like the idea of ​​compromise and don't like not being a leading factor. They're not considering that this issue needs to be solved. They are suggesting solutions that imply us recognizing Kosovo within the existing borders and for the north of Kosovo to have broad autonomy," Dacic said.

By introducing the taxes and adopting the (negotiating) platform, Pristina has stopped the dialogue, and Belgrade's position is that it can only be continued until when the taxes have been abolished, he continued.

"The aggravating circumstance are the forthcoming elections in the EU, but also the US elections, and it may happen that the Democrats return to power in the United States, who represent the view that there is nothing to talk about and that Serbia should recognize Kosovo."

Asked whether the platform was written by Pristina or received by it from the outside, Dacic said he thinks she was written in Pristina, but that several factors were involved and that "everyone added something."

"No document has been against the dialogue as this platform. It annuls the Brussels agreement. The platform has a wish list that Serbia should fulfill. This platform has no significance for us, nor will we accept something from it. It is an indicator of the degree to which they are against the compromise solutions," the minister said.

As for the reported Kosovo police operation in the northern, mostly Serb part, dubbed "steel ring" , Dacic said that Serbia has warned KFOR and NATO that it would intervene if Serbs were attacked in Kosovo.

"Serbia will not allow an attack on Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija. Of course, it will not allow an attack (on Serbs) anywhere in Kosovo - but it is the north that is their obsession," the minister concluded.