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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo's prime minister has called on Serbia to refrain from threatening language and turn to dialogue and cooperation.
Isa Mustafa on Wednesday spoke at his cabinet meeting about recent tensions with Serbia which heightened over the weekend when a Serbian train, bearing signs reading "Kosovo is Serbia" and decorated in the colors of the Serbian flag and Christian Orthodox symbols, was turned back from the border with Kosovo.
Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic has accused Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders of "wanting war" and warned that Serbia would defend "every inch" of its territory.
Mustafa said that there is no alternative to European Union-brokered dialogue, aimed at normalizing their relations.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but that has not been recognized by Belgrade.
Serbia, backed by Russia, has sought to maintain influence in Kosovo, especially in the north where most of the country's Serb minority lives. NATO-led troops have controlled Kosovo's territory since a three-month air war in 1999 to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
Serbia officially is seeking EU membership, but has lately been moving toward Russia, its traditional Slavic ally.
Mustafa deplored "Serbia's intensification of provocations" which he considered as "unrealizable" and "anachronistic."
Earlier in January tensions between soared following the detention in France of Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo prime minister and a former guerrilla commander in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia. Serbia demanded his extradition to Belgrade to face war crime charges. Pristina says Haradinaj has twice been cleared of such charges by a U.N. tribunal.
In December, the Serb ethnic minority in Mitrovica raised a concrete wall in the northern part of the bridge on Ibar River, calling it a technical support barrier against a landslide. Kosovo protested, and its parliament voted to demolish the wall.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday evening called Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, the Koha Ditore newspaper reported.
"She mentioned the importance of calming down the situation," the newspaper quoted Mogherini's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic as saying.
U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Kyle Scott said Tuesday after meeting with Nikolic "that stability in the region is a prerequisite for future progress, and that all should avoid heightened rhetoric."
"Kosovo is a sovereign, independent country, and we respect the right of Kosovo to manage who and what crosses its borders," the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo said in a statement. "We are pleased that there were no confrontations at the border, but the increase of nationalism benefits no one."
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