"Northern Kosovo for Preševo Valley"

"Northern Kosovo for Preševo Valley"

However, Rexhepi underlined that although Priština was against any such scenario, it would be very difficult to integrate the northern part of the province into an independent Kosovo.

In the latest negotiations mediated by the Contact Group, scheduled to last 120 days, Rexhepi said that Belgrade and Priština would not be able to narrow the gap between their respective stances.

“Even 120 months would not be enough,” he stressed, adding it would be better for Kosovo and Serbia proper to define the status of the province as soon as possible.

“As neighbors we have to cooperate, but first we have to split up. However, if the stalemate continues, various scenarios may develop,” Rexhepi concluded.

“Serb republic in Kosovo”

Alan Cooperman, a lecturer at the University of Austin, Texas, says that “the UN plan for Kosovo, where the Serb community feels unsafe, threatens to turn into a catastrophic scenario.”

“Following the proclamation of independence, Serbs living in the north of the province will try to break away from the rest, while Albanian extremists will likely react by attacking not only the north, but also the much more vulnerable Serb-populated enclaves elsewhere in Kosovo.”

Cooperman suggests that the plan should be modified in order to allow the creation of a Serb republic within an independent Kosovo.

“Kosovo would be granted independence only if Priština agreed to the annex of the plan concerning an autonomous Serb republic,” he said, adding that such a solution would not satisfy either side, but could fend off the threat of violence escalating in Kosovo.

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Thursday, Cooperman warned that, when it comes to Kosovo, “the U.S. might repeat its mistakes from the nineties when it prematurely rushed into supporting the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, disregarding the interests of Serbia.”