JOVANOVIĆ: REACTIVATE UN SECURITY COUNCIL’S ROLE

BELGRADE, AUGUST 21 /SRNA/ - Belgrade should reactivate and reaffirm the role of the UN Security Council in resolving the Kosovo and Metohija issue, as NATO and the EU, which have supported separatism and terrorism from the outset, are now shirking all responsibility for the security of the Serb people, former FR Yugoslavia Foreign Minister Živadin Jovanović said.

Jovanović told SRNA that Serbia must use all peaceful means to defend its rights based on the fundamental principles of international relations, its people whose lives are at risk, and everything to which it is entitled under international law and history.

"At this moment, the most important thing is to reactivate and reaffirm the irreplaceable role of the UN Security Council in resolving all issues concerning Kosovo and Metohija, while Belgrade should simultaneously demand the fulfilment of all outstanding obligations of the so-called international community towards Serbia," Jovanović stressed.

He expressed support for the initiative to urgently request a UN Security Council session on Kosovo and Metohija because of the violence being perpetrated against Serbs there, stressing that the opportunity should also be used to raise the issue of unfulfilled obligations towards Serbia and the Serb people established by UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

"Among these unfulfilled obligations, the priority should be to demand the free, safe and dignified return of 250,000 expelled Serbs and other non-Albanians to Kosovo and Metohija, as well as to raise the issue of the right to the return of agreed contingents of Serbian military and police personnel," Jovanović said.

He pointed out that Serbia should also demand the annulment of all decisions and changes introduced from the adoption of Resolution 1244 to the present day, including the establishment of the so-called Kosovo Security Force.

"The key question that must be raised again is how can weapons factories or drone factories be built in a territory under the mandate of the UN Security Council? Belgrade must pursue a much more active, rather than reactive, policy, as has been the case so far," Jovanović said.

According to him, the fact that, under Resolution 1244, Kosovo and Metohija is Serbian territory under the temporary mandate of the UN Security Council is being disregarded.

"The supreme authority in Kosovo and Metohija is temporarily the UN Security Council, and this irreplaceable role must be reaffirmed and the situation and future status of this part of Serbian territory seriously considered in New York," Jovanović said.

He stressed that changing the structure of the international presence in Kosovo and Metohija should be considered.

"Countries that are major players in global affairs, such as Russia, China, India and the BRICS countries that are members of the UN Security Council, bear responsibility for the overall situation in the world and have the right to participate in such a large-scale and extremely responsible mission as maintaining part of Serbian territory under the genuine full mandate of the Security Council," Jovanović said.

He assessed that Serbia is being pressured through Kosovo and Metohija to abandon its policies and its right to sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to be forced, through coercion and pressure, to recognise this illegal entity on part of its territory.

He believes that everything happening to Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, with the logistical support of the so-called international community, is closely connected to Western countries' dissatisfaction with Serbia's policy of neutrality and its refusal to impose sanctions on Russia or anyone else at the instruction or behest of Brussels or another Western centre.

"These are the countries that once financed terrorism and separatism in Kosovo and Metohija. The terrorist KLA received money, weapons and training precisely from those countries that at one point presented themselves as a factor facilitating Belgrade - Priština dialogue. They continued the same policy that motivated them to launch aggression against our country in 1999 and to forcibly impose and entrench separatism," Jovanović said.