Former U.S. ambassador William Montgomery stated today that the main goal of the prime minister of the provisional Pristina institutions, Albin Kurti, is the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija.
Speaking to K1 television, he said that Kurti carries out various provocations and that he believes Kurti’s aim is to anger Belgrade enough to take military action against Pristina. According to him, Kurti was hoping for the support of the United States.
“One of the things I’m dissatisfied with is that we failed to provide protection for Kosovo Serbs and allowed Kurti to ignore the promises made in Brussels — to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities, which was an important step. It was supposed to give Serbian municipalities closer ties with Belgrade. Kurti’s government agreed to it but never implemented it,” said Montgomery, who is in Belgrade promoting the book Undiplomatic Life, written with his wife Lynn.
According to him, the U.S. could impose stricter measures against Kurti for his behavior — not just sanctions, but also the suspension of aid programs.
“We supported UN membership. That could be taken away. I hope the U.S. will do that,” he said.
He added that he knew of a plan to resolve the situation when Hashim Thaçi was the leader and was considering the division of Kosovo and Metohija between Serbs and Albanians, but that the West — specifically, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel — blocked it.
“I would start from the fact that the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is not good, just like in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For thirty years we’ve been complaining but doing nothing to change it. We must look for alternatives that would lead to long-term progress. More emphasis must be placed on ethnicity because the ethnic element drives everything in the region,” said Montgomery.
The former diplomat also assessed that the Dayton and Kumanovo agreements were flawed from the start and are the cause of today’s problems.
“Instead of changing them, we’ve adhered to them like holy scripture. If you look at UN Security Council Resolution 1244, it recognizes the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and guarantees that in the future Serbia’s security forces would be able to protect religious monuments in Kosovo and Metohija — which did not happen. These agreements are not functional and need to be changed; they are unsuccessful and require better solutions,” he said.
He explained that it was a major mistake that Resolution 1244 was not implemented.
“We in the West, within NATO, decided to bomb Serbia. We didn’t have UN support, yet we tried to show that we did. Honestly, we didn’t respect the key provision on Yugoslavia’s sovereignty. Many diplomats thought that Kosovo Albanians had suffered terribly and deserved a homeland, so we agreed to form a state for Kosovo Albanians,” said Montgomery.
When asked whether U.S. President Donald Trump could resolve the crisis, he stated that with the Trump administration there is an opportunity to make positive changes in the region, since Trump has shown that he is not afraid to break away from clichés and refuses to do things the old way.
“With the right approach, he can play a major role in the region. Trump still has 3.5 years in power, and it’s early. I hope he will pay attention to the region,” he said.
He also noted that the sanctions situation is disastrous because Serbia is collateral damage.
“This is a conflict between the U.S. and Russia. Sanctions were imposed on a company under Russian ownership — I’m sorry about that. I’ve always opposed sanctions because they are easy to impose but hard to lift. It’s not a good solution. I wish Russian President Vladimir Putin would realize the difficult position your government is in and sell NIS to Serbia at some price. That would solve the problem. The biggest issue is majority ownership — if it became a minority stake, it would change the situation. Putin could fix it if he wanted to, but he seems unwilling to consider it,” Montgomery said.
Asked to comment on the withdrawal of Mark Brnovich’s nomination for the post of U.S. ambassador to Serbia, the K1 guest said that in 60 countries no ambassador has even been nominated and that the importance of having ambassadors is not sufficiently emphasized in the current U.S. administration.
“I believe he (Mark Brnovich) went through the usual medical and other screenings, but something came up. It’s unusual for a nomination to be withdrawn like that. I think something from his biography or career surfaced. Trump doesn’t listen to the deep state — this was decided by Trump’s administration, and I’m sure they will find someone who wishes Serbia well,” said Montgomery.
MORE TOPICS:
GREEK PAID THE PRICE FOR A BAD START: Crvena Zvezda sacked Giannis Sfairopoulos! (FOTO)
Source: B92; Foto: AP