PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The European Union envoy for the Western Balkans on Friday urged Kosovo and Serbia to step up their efforts at normalization talks, saying these are decisive on their path toward membership into the bloc.
Miroslav Lajcak was on a visit to Kosovo’s capital Pristina where he met with Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, who is in charge of the Kosovo side of the EU-facilitated talks. The local press said Lajcak is not expected to go to Belgrade, as has usually been the case in all his previous trips.
The EU and the United States are pressing both sides to implement agreements that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti reached in February and March last year.
“The agreement is legally binding ... and beyond that the agreement is already part of the European road for Kosovo and Serbia,” Lajcak told journalist after meeting with Bislimi, adding that “there are statements from both sides which do not help.”
Lajcak, whose mandate has been extended until January by the bloc's Council, is working on the next high-level meeting for the two countries' leaders.
Kosovo-Serbia ties remain tense and the 13-year-long normalization talks facilitated by the European Union have failed to make progress, especially following a shootout last September between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead. NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers have increased their numbers and equipment along the Kosovo-Serbia border.
Washington, Brussels and KFOR have urged Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions fearing the revival of inter-ethnic conflict.
Last week Kosovo authorities closed five so-called parallel institutions in the north — where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives.
Kurti last month called for the full reopening of a bridge in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica, a move that the West is concerned would escalate tension with the area’s minority ethnic Serbs. Mitrovica is divided into a Serb-dominated north and ethnic Albanian south, and the two sides rarely mix.
Kurti has also been at odds with Western powers over Kosovo’s unilateral closure of six branches of a Serbia-licensed bank in northern Kosovo earlier this year.
Kosovo’s 1.6 million population is more than 90 percent Albanian.
The tiny Balkan country will hold parliamentary elections on Feb. 9, a vote that is expected to be a test for Kurti, whose governing party won in a landslide in the 2021.
Kosovo was a former Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, proclaimed in 2008.
Semini reported from Tirana, Albania. Follow Llazar Semini at https://x.com/lsemini
FILE - European Union envoy for the Western Balkans Miroslav Lajcak, speaks during a joint press conference with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar in Belgrade, Serbia, on Feb. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovicm, File)
Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including five women and four children.
A strike early Monday flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children.
The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings.
Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed six people, including a woman and two children, according to the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.
Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
The Gaza Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war nearly a year ago. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Here's the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister has told his U.S. counterpart that time is running out for an agreement with Hezbollah to halt the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Yoav Gallant told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that “the possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas.”
“The trajectory is clear,” Gallant added, according to a statement released from his office on Monday.
Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into northern Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Both armed groups are allied with Iran, and Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has responded to the attacks with airstrikes and the targeted killing of Hezbollah commanders. It has threatened a wider operation, raising fears of another all-out war.
Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but months of talks brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled.
Hamas has demanded a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as part of any agreement to release the scores of hostages it still holds from the Oct. 7 attack.
Gallant told Austin that “in any possible scenario, Israel’s defense establishment will continue to operate with the aim of dismantling Hamas and ensuring the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza — by any means.”
Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, including 4 children, Palestinians say
Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, including 4 children, Palestinians say
FILE -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
