EU and U.S. envoys urge Kosovo and Serbia to resume dialogue to ease soaring tension

EU, U.S. urge Kosovo, Serbia to resume dialogue to de-escalate tension; EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak and U.S. counterpart Gabriel Escobar met with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti; EU and U.S. pressuring Kosovo to allow for the creation of the Association of the Serb-Majority Municipalities; EU imposed punishing measures on Kosovo for refusing the ASM.

The envoys of the European Union and the United States urged on Saturday Kosovo and Serbia to resume dialogue as the only way to de-escalate the soaring tension between the two nations.

This is the first such visit since September 24 when nearly 30 Serb gunmen crossed into northern Kosovo, killing a police officer and setting up barricades, before launching an hours-long gun battle with Kosovo police. Three gunmen were killed.

EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak and his U.S. counterpart Gabriel Escobar, accompanied by top diplomats from Germany, France and Italy, met with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti in the capital, Pristina, after which they will head to Belgrade.

“If there is no dialogue, there might be a repetition of escalation,” said Mr. Lajcak after meeting with Mr. Kurti.

Mr. Lajcak said they strongly denounced “the terrorist attack against Kosovo police by armed individuals (that) constitutes a clear and unprecedented escalation.”

He added that the attack also "very clearly underlined that both de-escalation and normalisation are now more urgent than ever.”

Both Serbia and Kosova want to join the EU, which has told them that they first need to sort out their differences.