Petkovic receives Swedish ambassador to Belgrade

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic received Swedish Ambassador to Belgrade Charlotte Sammelin on Tuesday to discuss the current political and security situation in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija, particularly touching upon the latest unilateral and violent moves by Pristina, which has closed over 35 Serbian institutions, interim authorities, social work centres and Post of Serbia offices south of the Ibar River in Kosovo-Metohija.

Petkovic said Serbs in the province faced unprecedented terror and violence that, day by day, confirmed Pristina PM Albin Kurti's aspirations to expel the Serbs and create an ethnically clean Kosovo-Metohija.

Since early June 2023, when the EU clearly demanded de-escalation and a withdrawal of the so-called Kosovo Police from the north of the province, Pristina has been demonstrating openly that it is not interested in a calming of tensions, a statement from the Office for Kosovo-Metohija quoted Petkovic as saying.

By closing Serbian institutions, the Pristina regime is indicating in the most direct manner that it has no intent of establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities as the closed institutions were to become the very foundation of the Community, Petkovic warned.

He also noted that Srpska lista was facing major pressure and obstacles created by the Pristina regime to make it impossible for the party to run in the February 9 elections in the province because a vote for Srpska lista meant a vote for the survival of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

Belgrade is neither making nor wants to make moves that can cause tensions and fresh crises on the ground while, through unreasonable and unilateral actions, Pristina is doing everything to lead to an escalation, Petkovic said.

"In spite of all that, Belgrade remains substantially interested in preserving peace and stability in our southern province, and appeals to the international community - above all, the EU - to use determined political and diplomatic means to prevent further moves by Pristina that are threatening to destabilise the region and spark new confrontations, putting a continuation of the dialogue in question at the same time," Petkovic noted.