Bolton to BIRN: Seems we lost opportunity in Belgrade – Pristina dialogue

NEWS 15.07.202014:38
Reuters/Peter Nicholls

In an interview with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, John Bolton, the US President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, said it seemed that Belgrade and Pristina had withdrawn from positions with some greater prospect they could bridge their differences.

Commenting on reports about the territory swap between Belgrade and Pristina, Bolton, the author of an explosive book ‘The Room Where it Happened’ about his time at the White House which caused bitter reactions in Washington, said that “if the parties themselves felt that as part of an overall solution that adjustments to territory made sense, that the United States would support that. And I think that policy is a sound approach.”

He added that “at the time in question, Europeans were looking at that as well, and many took exactly the same view. I understand from others in the Balkans, the concern that if some borders are changed all borders are at risk. I understand what they’re saying, but I think that fear is exaggerated.”

“(Former US Secretary of State) Jim Baker once said about the Israeli-Arab dispute: we can’t want peace more than the parties themselves. If Kosovo and Serbia were to agree to land swaps as part of an overall solution, really are outsiders, whether from the United States or elsewhere, in Europe, going to tell them that the solution isn’t satisfactory? I don’t think so,” Bolton told BIRN, ahead of the resumption of Belgrade – Pristina dialogue on the normalisation of relations in Brussels on Thursday.

For the whole interview click here