Bolton: Recognition of Kosovo was a mistake
Former United States undersecretary of state and ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said on Thursday that the US recognition of Kosovo was a mistake that will lead to an escalation of tensions and not the calming of the situation in the Balkans.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, June 27, 2008
"The US public has no specific stand on the independence of Kosovo", Bolton said in an interview to the Russian news agency Interfax.
"The US State Department recognized Kosovo, but others did not even pay attention to that event", he said.
According to Bolton, support to the independence of Kosovo is "an atavism that might have made sense 15 years ago, but makes no sense today".
"The US policy on Kosovo was an automatic pilot since the times when Slobodan Milosevic had been in power", he said.
The US aspired to support all those who were against him, but the situation significantly changed when a democratic government came to power in Belgrade, Bolton said.
"There is an unnecessary growing risk of an escalation of violence in the region, because of the independence of Kosovo. Serbs in Bosnia will say: if Kosovo can break off from Serbia, why cannot they break off from the composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina", he warned.
