Rama: Vučić's request to return the army to Kosovo is surreal

(Patria) - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke about the situation in northern Kosovo, describing it as unfavorable and concerning, and called Serbia's request to send soldiers there surreal, reported the MIA agency.

Speaking at the New Year's reception for ambassadors in Tirana, regarding Aleksandar Vučić's announcement that he would ask KFOR for the return of 1,000 members of Serbian forces to Kosovo, Rama said it was as if Pristina had asked NATO to send Albanian soldiers to protect ethnic Albanians in the Preševo Valley.

"I understand that this may be yet another smoke bomb of political rhetoric, but it is as surreal as if Kosovo asked NATO to send Albanian troops to southern Serbia to protect ethnic Albanians," he said.

Rama believes that the end of this calendar year "is not good for the process of normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia."

"The rise in tensions in northern Kosovo is not only useless but also deeply concerning. It is incredible that we constantly have to face the appearance of barricades, stagnation in the normalization process, and the fire brigades of the US and EU running to save the dialogue from the flames of harsh political rhetoric," Rama said.

Finally, he said that Kosovo has entered its third decade "since Kosovo was once and for all liberated from Belgrade" and added that it "will never again be under the law of Belgrade."