(Al Jazeera Media Network) The United States has urged Belgrade to pull its forces back from the border with Kosovo after detecting what it called an “unprecedented” Serbian military build-up.
Serbia has deployed sophisticated tanks and artillery near the frontier with Kosovo after deadly clashes erupted at a monastery in northern Kosovo last weekend, the White House warned on Friday.
The violence – in which a Kosovar police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed – marked one of the gravest escalations in tension for years between Serbia and the former breakaway province that is now Kosovo.
“We are monitoring a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“That includes an unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, mechanized infantry units. We believe that this is a very destabilizing development,” he said.
“We are calling on Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic earlier on Friday to urge “immediate de-escalation and a return to dialogue,” Kirby added.
Vucic has not directly denied there had been a recent build-up but rejected claims that his country’s forces were on high alert.
