Draft Kosovo resolution in UN today

BELGRADE, NEW YORK, POTSDAM -- Washington will today circulate its draft Kosovo resolution to the UN Security Council ambassadors.

BBC reports that the United States mission with the UN has confirmed a new draft resolution on Kosovo’s future status will be submitted Thursday. The resolution text will in all likelihood not be significantly different compared to the previous draft based on UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for the province’s supervised independence. “This does not mean voting will follow straight away, what we wish to do is acquaint the ambassadors with the somewhat modified draft, which now includes some of the objections made by other sides,”

Tanjug was told earlier by an anonymous diplomatic source at the UN. Kosovo negotiating team member Veton Surroi said Wednesday the previous consultations phase was over, as well as that there was a document that will be considered by the UN Security Council today. Washington-based analyst Obrad Kesić said he was unaware that a new resolution would be presented to the council, adding the Albanian politicians were likely talking about the U.S.-EU resolution, with the text “perhaps changed in several sentences to be more acceptable to Russia”. “I think this is about changing the phrasing of several sentences [in the draft resolution], since the State Department lawyers have spent some weeks now trying to come up with a resolution that would cancel 1244 and open up possibilities for Kosovo’s independence.

In other words, a resolution that would give the Russians an honorable way out,” Kesić said. However, he said chances of Russia backing down from its position on the province’s status were slim, adding that there was also little room for compromise between Washington and Moscow. “What needs to be seen now is, which side finds this to be an important issue? Do U.S. interests tied to Kosovo matter so much that cooperation with Russia will be jeopardized? Moscow has spent much of its credibility.

This has now become a serious issue for the Russians, perhaps not so much so in the beginning, but any Russian decision to back down now would be interpreted as a sign of weakness by the U.S. and Europe,” Kesić explained. According to him, the easiest answer the United States could come up with to Russian threats of veto would be continued negotiations.

E Verteta 4_U

something is odd here cause on the SC site they have nothing on Kosova today.