Serbian President Vucic threatens to intervene in Kosovo

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has called on NATO to protect the Serb minority in Kosovo from attacks. If the Western military alliance fails to do the job, Serbia may be forced to intervene itself, Vucic said in a televised speech on Sunday. "We will protect our people from persecution and pogroms if NATO doesn't want to do it." The multinational KFOR force with almost 4,000 soldiers is stationed in Kosovo under NATO leadership.

Kosovo split from Serbia in 1999 and declared independence in 2008, but the government in Belgrade has never recognized this, nor has Serbia's important ally Russia. For years, the EU has been trying to normalize relations between the two states, which Brussels sees as one of the preconditions for possible membership in the alliance of states. A crisis meeting in Brussels ended without agreement on Thursday, which included a dispute over new entry rules for Serbs in Kosovo.

Vucic claimed in his speech that "gangs" of Kosovar Albanians are invading northern Kosovo, where most ethnic Serbs live. These would have to be stopped. He did not present any evidence of this. At the same time, the Serbian President also emphasized that his government would work towards a compromise in the dispute over the entry rules before they come into force on September 1st.