Petkovic: Kurti trying to shift blame for failure of dialogue on Belgrade

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Wednesday Pristina's PM Albin Kurti had again tried, unsuccessfully, to shift the blame for the failure of dialogue on Belgrade.

Petkovic said Kurti was deceiving the public as he himself was the party violating all possible agreements reached in Brussels and thwarting all attempts of normalisaiton of Belgrade-Pristina relations.

The entire international community knows very well Kurti is the one who remains unwilling to establish a Community of Serb Municipalities after as many as 11 years, and the only one who is hiding from dialogue because he knows he must meet his commitments, Petkovic said.

The reached agreements clearly state who should write the Community's statute and what it should look like, Petkovic said, noting that Kurti should write "his lists of New Year's wishes" to someone else because, evidently, he "still believes in fairytales."

"Once he gets back to reality, he will see that the Community of Serb Municipalities needs to have clearly defined powers prescribed in the 2015 Agreement on General Principles," Petkovic said.

Kurti will also see "an unequivocal message from President Aleksandar Vucic, who has told representatives of the international community and the entire public, too, where our red lines are and that there is no recognition of the so-called Kosovo and no membership for it in the UN or UN agencies and organisations," Petkovic noted.