Djuric: Kurti brazenly defying EU, efforts to stabilise situation in W Balkans

BELGRADE - Pristina's caretaker PM Albin Kurti has responded to a call for de-escalation by European Council President Antonio Costa with continued escalation, Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Thursday, noting that this represented a "deliberate and brazen act of defiance" toward the EU and its efforts to stabilise the situation in the Western Balkans.

"Just one day after the European Council President, Antonio Costa, expressed his expectation that Pristina would engage in the normalisation of relations with Belgrade through constructive dialogue and voiced hope that the unilateral actions of Kurti’s regime in the north of Kosovo-Metohija would not become a pattern, we are witnessing yet another troubling attack on regional stability," Djuric wrote in a post on X in the wake of Pristina's police raid on the regional waterworks facility in Zubin Potok.

"Today, representatives of the Provisional Institutions in Pristina entered the premises of the Regional Waterworks in the predominantly Serb municipality of Zubin Potok, thereby jeopardising the functioning of a vital communal system upon which the lives of Serbs in northern Kosovo-Metohija literally depend," Djuric noted.

"Kurti’s response to President Costa’s call for de-escalation is, therefore, a continued escalation. It is now entirely clear that this represents a deliberate and brazen act of defiance toward the European Union and its efforts to stabilise the situation in the Western Balkans," he added.

"I once again emphasise that the only way to prevent the systematic violation of the basic human rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija is the urgent establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities — an obligation Pristina committed to twelve years ago.

Instead of fulfilling the obligations, Kurti is attacking Serbian communal infrastructure in northern Kosovo-Metohija, even though it was agreed that these systems would fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Community of Serb Municipalities," Djuric posted.