MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will use its clout at the U.N. to block Western plans to cement Kosovo as an independent state, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a newspaper interview published on Friday.
Kosovo’s majority Albanian population is expected to declare unilateral independence from Serbia within weeks, and the European Union, United States and other states are likely to recognise this.
But Lavrov warned Russia would work through the U.N. to block the steps Western powers are planning after the unilateral declaration of independence.
These include dispatching a European Union police force to ensure security in Kosovo and, possibly, seeking U.N. endorsement of Kosovo as a sovereign state.
“If a decision approving a unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence is put forward (in the U.N.), there will certainly be a veto,” Lavrov told Vremya Novostei daily. Russia, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has a right of veto.
The Council failed on Wednesday to bridge deep divisions between Kosovo Albanians, who seek full independence, and Belgrade, which rules it out.
Lavrov said if the EU took over the U.N.’s lead role on Kosovo, it could be the first step in the demise of the world’s biggest international forum, created as a guarantor of global stability.
“In fact, this is the first attempt to say that the West is no longer interested in the United Nations, that they will now solve complicated international problems outside the United Nations,” Lavrov said.
“If NATO and the European Union say they will decide themselves how to divide Serbia, how to tear off Kosovo, how to prevent Kosovo Serbs from expressing their opinions, they will simply position themselves outside international law,” Lavrov said.
“The U.N. Secretary-General, the U.N. mission in Kosovo will then be obliged to create conditions for reaching a political settlement,” he added.
“They will simply be obliged to proclaim illegal any decision on unilateral independence by Kosovo Albanians.”
Russia says recognising Kosovo’s independence bypassing Serbia’s objections could create a dangerous precedent for other regions, where separatist sentiment is high.
Moscow itself backs two breakaway provinces of ex-Soviet Georgia — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — and Moldova’s separatist province of Transdniestria. But it has so far rejected their pleas to recognise their formal independence.
(Writing by Oleg Shchedrov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Related posts:
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Copyright © 1996-2008 Serbian Unity Congress
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^
If unilateral declarations of independence is now the way to go , Greater Serbia is now a possiblity . Timing is evreything , with a thousand tanks and Russia’s missiles on alert . Why cant Serbs suscede from Yugoslavia like evreybody else did . Why cant Serbia take a little extra ,evreybody else did .
Comment by eric — December 24, 2007 #