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Kosovo Prime Minister Avdulah Hoti declared today that Israel recognized Kosovo 22 minutes after he and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić pledged in Washington to normalize economic relations between the two sides.
Avdulah Hoti Photo: Facebook“It is wrong for anyone to have doubts that this agreement violates the sovereignty of the state of Kosovo.” “I believe that this recognition, which came from Israel 22 minutes after the signing of the agreement at the White House, can only strengthen the sovereignty of the state of Kosovo,” Hoti told reporters.
He said that “there is no doubt that the agreement will be implemented,” reported H1 Television.
“It was concluded in the White House, and I don’t think any other office has greater credibility to ensure the implementation of the agreement,” Hoti said.
Vučić and Hoti pledged to normalize economic relations at the White House on Friday. In the presence of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, each of them signed a copy of the document called “Economic Normalization.” The documents differ only in the last of the 16 points.
In the document signed by Vučić, the last bullet reads: “Serbia (Belgrade) agrees to open an office of the Chamber of Commerce and a state office in Jerusalem on September 20, 2020 and to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem before July 1, 2021 “.
In the document signed by Hoti, the last bullet reads: “Kosovo (Pristina) and Israel agree to mutual recognition.”
Despite that, the Serbian public is still debating whether Serbia made an unconditional commitment to move the embassy to Jerusalem before July 1, 2021.
The Times of Israel reported today that Serbia will not fulfill its promise to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if Israel recognizes Kosovo’s independence, citing a source close to the Belgrade government.
Vučić’s media adviser Suzana Vasiljević said today that the relocation of the Serbian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “is not final”, that the next steps will be discussed and that Serbia “has not accepted anything for now.”
Addressing the public after the agreement was signed at the White House, Vucic said on Friday that the US position was that Serbia should ask Israel to recognize an independent Kosovo, which was unacceptable to Belgrade.
Vučić said that because of that, a decision was made that the Serbian and Albanian parties sign two documents.
“In our document with the Americans, we offered Israel and said: ‘If they respect Serbia, we will move the embassy to Jerusalem in a year,'” Vucic said on Friday.
Around the same time as Vučić’s speech to the public, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement of the relocation of the Serbian Embassy in Jerusalem.
He also said that Israel will establish diplomatic relations with Pristina and that Kosovo will open an embassy in Jerusalem and become the first European and Muslim-majority country to do so.
So far, only two countries, the United States and Guatemala, have moved embassies to Jerusalem.
Most of the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and believes that such recognition should be part of the solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the two-state model. According to this model, East Jerusalem would be the capital of the future Palestinian state.
Resolution 478 of the UN Security Council of 1980 asked all members of the world organization to withdraw diplomatic missions from Jerusalem.
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