Djuric: Support to transformation of "KSF" into army does not help defuse tensions

WASHINGTON - Serbian Ambassador to the US Marko Djuric said on Thursday support to a transformation of the so-called Kosovo Security Force into an army did not contribute to dialogue, defusing of tensions and normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations.

"Support for KSF transformation, phased or immediate, into a heavily armed military force, does not contribute to the dialogue process, defusing of tensions or normalising relations in our region," Djuric wrote in a post on the social media network X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a statement by US Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier that Washington supported a transformation of the "Kosovo Security Force" into an army of the so-called Kosovo.

"Furthermore, KSF transformation into a standing army runs directly against UNSCR 1244 and the Kumanovo Military-Technical agreement. All this aside, supporting KSF transformation in this political moment in Kosovo* only empowers and rewards an extreme government in Pristina driven by an ethno-nationalist agenda, under whose watch 11 pct of Kosovo Serbs already left Kosovo.

Dialogue remains the only way forward, and for it to have any success we should not further encourage those who undermine it blatantly," Djuric added.

In the statement, Hovenier said the US supported a transformation of the "Kosovo Security Force" into an army over a period of ten years and that the force had demonstrated maturity during the September 24 clashes in Banjska.