Eide: Kosovo should be negotiated until all options are spent
Former UN envoy for Kosovo and political director at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Kai Eide said in Belgrade on Thursday that the negotiations on Kosovo's status could not be finished until all options were considered.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, October 26, 2007
"A solution based on a UN Security Council resolution is the best, because then we would have undisputed legal grounds. If that does not happen, any other solution would have a controversial legal foundation and would be a politically controversial issue," Eide said at a seminar organized by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Belgrade.
Talking about the course of the negotiations so far, Eide said that everyone in Kosovo needed to know where they stand, and urged the local population to refrain from violence and the use of force.
"I would like more focus to be put on standards, and am very disappointed with the fact that the status talks are not more connected with the issue of standards," Eide said.
"Moderation must be the leading principle, especially for the Pristina authorities. The process of trust and offering the minorities a hand must be more visible," Eide said.
NATO Parliamentary Assembly Speaker Jose Lelo at the same seminar said that the military alliance wanted a compromise solution to be found for the Kosovo issue, which would take both sides' interests into account.
"The matter of Kosovo will either be resolved, or a very dangerous situation will be created in the entire region, which could spread to all neighboring countries, and that would have a negative effect on the whole region," Lelo said.
In an answer to a journalist's question whether NATO was ready to react in case of a potential escalation of violence in Kosovo, Lelo said that the situation greatly depended on the outside factor and called on the major forces to be careful with the signals they were sending the Kosovo citizens.
"I think this is not a military issue, it is a political issue. If politicians find a solution which is good for all sides, one that will acknowledge the needs of the people living in Kosovo, which will respect the interests of the Kosovo Serbs and Albanians, then why even raise the question of military engagement," Lelo said.
