Belgrade claims diplomatic victory but urges caution
Serbian President Boris Tadic has expressed satisfaction over the UN General Committee's decision to include in the UN General Assembly's agenda Serbia's initiative to request the International Court of Justice opinion on the legality of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, September 18, 2008
He said the General Committee decision to put the Serbian initiative on the agenda is the fruit of Belgrade's diplomatic efforts.
Tadic said this does not mean by any means that the whole job is done, because the UN General Assembly has yet to vote on Serbia's initiative and the outcome of that vote is, according to him, uncertain.
"The Serbian delegation has a big job ahead of it and in New York in direct talks we will try to win the support of as many UN member states as possible for our resolution," President Tadic pointed out.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said that the committee's unanimous decision to include Serbia's initiative to seek the advisory opinion of the ICJ "an important tactical victory", but that it was still too early to be triumphant and that Serbia has to carry on with its efforts to win the support in the world organization.
He said that the debate in the General Committee was "extremely passionate" and that an important victory was won, but that it is too early to be triumphant.
"This was an important tactical victory, because it gives momentum to our initiative, but the war has not been won yet and the decisive battle at the General Assembly is still ahead of us," Jeremic said.
"We have to keep on working in the same pace in order to win the necessary votes. We were successful today, but it will be even more difficult at the UN General Assembly," he added.
"Serbia's delegation will have a lot of work to do at the UN General Assembly next Monday. We have a reason to be encouraged, but there is still a lot of work ahead of us," Jeremic said.
