"America made a time bomb on European soil," and it's in Serbia

"America made a time bomb on European soil," and it's in Serbia

This is the opinion of Dragomir Andjelkovic, a political analyst, about the position of US President Donald Trump, that the 20-year-old Kosovo conflict was mismanaged, which was expressed by Richard Grenell, a mediator in the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, Sputnik reports.

Grenell, at the same time, did not specify what Trump meant when he said this.

Andjelkovic believes that Trump clearly, in this way, condemned America's policy on this issue, which was pursued in the earlier period.

"Of course, Washington cannot abruptly make a turn from what the then US administration did, but Trump is aware that these are bad frameworks, and that something should be changed. I think that his statement is very favorable for us, because it refers, at least rhetorically, to what America did to Serbia regarding Kosovo", Andjelković is convinced.

Sputnik's interlocutor adds that this does not mean that the United States will give up on recognizing Kosovo, because they will never create a discontinuity in relation to their policy, even when it is radically different in relation to the previous administration.

"So, they will not annul the policy of their predecessors, but we can expect more understanding for the Serbian side, and a willingness to reach a compromise at some point. But we cannot expect radical moves such as moving away from the concept of 'independent Kosovo", Andjelković concluded.

He believes that Trump, when he spoke about the mismanaged conflict, probably meant the aggression against the FRY that took place 20 years ago.

"It is clear that America's greatest mistake is certainly that it carried out an aggression against a sovereign state, to occupy a part of its territory. And then allowed Islamic fundamentalists to do whatever they wanted. The same fundamentalists later became a danger to America, because the largest number of members of extreme Muslim formations in the Middle East, in relation to the number of inhabitants, came from Kosovo. That is their first mistake," says Andjelkovic for Sputnik.

Another mistake relates to America's behavior after taking control over Kosovo, because it did nothing to establish a legal framework.

"That is, they let that zone become mafia territory, and finally, they recognized it as a state. Instead of agreeing on a model that would satisfy the Serbs, the division of Kosovo or something else... This is how they gave the Albanians what they wanted, and now it is difficult for anyone to persuade them to make any compromise", notes Andjelković.