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NATO-led forces are ready to intervene in northern Kosovo if stability in the region is threatened.
NATO said in a statement on Sunday that tensions were rising in municipalities in northern Kosovo and that the Kosovo Force Pristina (KFOR) was monitoring the situation closely.
FILE – View from the road to the Jarinje and Bernjak border crossings, after the Kosovo Serbs removed the barricades they had set up, in Jarinje, Kosovo, on October 2, 2021. (Erkin Keci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force, was established in 1999 with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which responded to the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Tensions are rising again amid a new government regulation that will force people entering Kosovo with Serbian identity documents to replace them with a temporary document during their stay there.
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On Sunday, ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, a partially recognized state bordering Serbia in the Balkans, blocked two key border crossings with Serbia to protest the new rule.
NATO said KFOR was closely monitoring the situation “and is ready to intervene if stability is threatened.”
“KFOR maintains a visible and agile posture on the ground, and the KFOR commander is in contact with all his main interlocutors, including representatives of Kosovo security organizations and the Serbian Defense,” said NATO in a statement.
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The new regulation will come into effect on August 1, but Kosovo announced later on Sunday that it would postpone a decision on license plates and identity documents issued by Serbia until September 1.