Escobar: Turning your back on dialogue process would be turning your back on Europe

BELGRADE - US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel Escobar said on Wednesday he had made it clear during a discussion with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday that "turning your back on the process (of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue) would be turning your back on Europe, with all the consequences that it entails in the failure of closer integration and closer relationship with Europe."

"That, by itself, is a very serious consequence," Escobar told a press conference in Belgrade.

Commenting on tensions in the north of Kosovo-Metohija and protests against newly-elected ethnic Albanian mayors in Serb-majority municipalities following Pristina's local polls that were boycotted by Serbs, Escobar said:

"We have to de-escalate the situation immediately. That means that we are hoping that mayors not try to use those (municipal) buildings, that the Kosovo police be withdrawn from around the buildings, but we also want to make sure that protesters leave the area as well," Escobar said, adding that, in case of new elections, Serbs should participate in them without any preconditions.

He noted that Vucic had said he would do everything to use his influence to ensure they took part in the elections.

Escobar also said that, if Pristina did not want partnership, that would move it away from an alliance with NATO and that it would be a major consequence by itself.