Kosovo may be granted independence without UN resolution

PanARMENIAN.Net - Seeking to raise pressure on Russia, the European Union said on Thursday it could withdraw the issue of Kosovo's final status from the UN Security Council if Moscow does not accept a resolution soon.



EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana made the comment after Russia rejected a third draft UN resolution on the province on Monday, a watered-down text calling for more Serb-Albanian talks which Moscow said was still "permeated with the concept of the independence of Kosovo."



Ethnic Albanian leaders in the breakaway Serbian province said the Council had failed on Kosovo and urged the West to offer an alternative route to independence from Serbia.



Solana said a further 120-day period of shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina would be conducted instead under the authority of the major power Contact Group, where Moscow has a seat but not a veto.



After that period, the final status of Kosovo would be fixed. "We hope that will be decided in the context of a United Nations resolution," Solana said, implying the West might seek another source of legitimacy if Russia was still stonewalling.



Asked whether UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari would remain as mediator, he said: "I cannot answer that formally now but I think it will probably be under the aegis of the Contact Group."



The informal group, created in the mid-1990s to oversee Balkan diplomacy, comprises the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.



Solana said there was still a short period left to push for a UN resolution. He spoke after meeting Ahtisaari, whose peace plan called for Kosovo's independence under EU supervision, Reuters reports.