Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Kosovo, prossima materia di scontro tra USA e Russia

US to sidestep Russia veto on Kosovo
12jun07
THE US is pressing for a quick UN vote on Kosovo but is ready to take on
Russia's threat of a veto and move to unilaterally recognise the Serbian
province's right to independence.
US President George W. Bush on Sunday chose Tirana as a backdrop to make
an urgent call for Kosovo's independence, refusing an "endless dialogue"
on the future of the UN-run province. 
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "will be moving hard to see if we
can't reach an agreement" in the UN Security Council between US and
Europeans which are for Kosovo's independence, and Russia, which is
against. 
"And if not, we're going to have to move," said Bush. "Independence is the
goal and that's what the people of Kosovo need to know." 
Though technically a Serbian province, Albanian-majority Kosovo has been
UN-run since the end of the NATO assault in mid-1999. 
Some 10,000 ethnic Albanians died and hundreds of thousands fled Kosovo
during the 1998-1999 conflict between Serbian government troops and ethnic
Albanian separatists. 
For some time, the US has been pressing for Kosovo independence within the
UN framework but due to Russia's strong opposition, it is now considering
sidestepping the international body and unilaterally recognising the
province as independent, the US State Department said Monday. 
A department spokesman noted that UN approval was not needed for NATO's
1999 military intervention to protect the Albanian population in Kosovo
from the Serbian army. 
The Security Council is currently debating a draft resolution sponsored by
the US, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Slovakia and Germany calling for
"full implementation" of UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for
"internationally-supervised independence" of Kosovo. 
On Monday, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey urged the council to
move quickly: "There is a resolution that is tabled at the UN. I expect
those discussions to move forward. I expect there will be a vote on it." 
Department spokesman Sean McCormack played down the prospect of a Russian
veto. "Nobody wants it to get to that point ... Nobody wants to see a
veto." 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last month said a veto would be a
last resort. "I hope a veto will not be necessary," he said after a
meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialised nations
in Potsdam, Germany. 
Some political analysts hope Moscow would at least abstain from voting on
Kosovo in the council, although they said it was unlikely given the rising
US-Russia tensions over a planned US missile defence system in Eastern
Europe. 
"If there is a veto, the most likely outcome is a unilateral declaration
of independence," said Stephen Sestanovich, with the Council on Foreign
Relations, who predicted problems within the European Union. 
"I would expect that Washington will recognise Kosovo and that at least a
majority of EU countries will as well, but I don't know that you would get
the EU as a collective body to do so, and that starts looking awkward.
That starts creating some problems," the expert said. 
Facing a Basque separatist movement on its own soil, Spain is concerned
about the implications of Europe recognising Kosovo's independence outside
the UN framework. 
The issue is up for discussion by the contact group for Kosovo - the US,
Britain, Germany, Italy and Russia - when it meets Tuesday in Paris. 
- AFP
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