Vucic: Kurti wants to spark conflict before US elections, his time is running out

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday evening Pristina's PM Albin Kurti wanted to spark a conflict before the US elections as his time was slowly running out and that he was using provocations to turn NATO against Serbia.

"He is very nervous, and our people in Kosovo-Metohija are going through a hard time. His political position is not as simple as it was, say, two years ago," Vucic told reporters when asked if the opening of a bridge on the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica could lead to an escalation of violence.

Vucic was visiting the construction site of a national football stadium in the Belgrade municipality of Surcin.

He said Monday's raid of Post of Serbia offices in the north of Kosovo-Metohija by the so-called Kosovo Police was not a result of a policy, but of violence.

"We have signed agreements on post offices and telecommunications that are being brutally violated and destroyed, as you can see and as the Quint also says. So why do they (the Quint) not react more strongly? It is clear why - because they are protecting their darling (the so-called Kosovo). But I hope that KFOR will react appropriately tomorrow and that, in line with all the things they have said in the past several days, they will close the bridge and prevent an invasion of ethnic Albanians," Vucic said.

He said that, following an announcement of a Serb protest rally against the opening of the bridge, a former mayor of southern Kosovska Mitrovica had scheduled a counter-rally across the bridge on Kurti's orders.

"I believe KFOR will succeed in ensuring peace and protecting Serb lives. I believe they will not get us into a position where we need to react, because that would be a disaster for us," Vucic said.

Serbia must be rational, serious and firm in its commitment to keep Kosovo-Metohija within its borders, he added.