US envoy Richard Grenell exclusive interview tonight with T7 and Gazeta Express

Gazeta Express

27/03/2020 17:06

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy on Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell, gave an exclusive interview to Gazeta Express and T7 television, which will be aired tonight (Friday) at 20:45 during Pressing show and will be published by Gazeta Express.

Political turmoil in Kosovo amidst coronavirus crisis culminating with Parliament’s no-confidence vote in Government on Wednesday was unprecedented for the history and democracy in Kosovo. As the entire world and Kosovo are facing with the worst pandemics over the last 100 years, political unrest in the country became part of this drama. Ruling coalition partners, Vetevendosje and LDK, after only 50 days in power, were involved in a fight on whether to drop tariffs on Serbian goods or not. The tariffs were introduced by former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj in November 2018.  

The United States request is clear: Kosovo should drop tariffs and resume dialogue with Serbia. This was reiterated many times by the US special envoy Grenell. The junior coalition partner – LDK urged Prime Minister Albin Kurti to drop tariffs as requested by the US but this call was ignored by the Vetevendosje Kurti. The political drama reached its peak after PM Kurti sacked minister of Interior Agim Veliu, a senior member of the LDK, accelerating thus the fall of the Government with two third of voted in the Parliament on Wednesday.  

The name of the US special envoy Grenell was at the epicentre of the debate between the LDK and Vetevendosje as well as between PM Kurti and opposition parties. Grenell, who in addition to mediating dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia holds the post of the U.S. ambassador to Germany and las month was selected to serve as acting director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will speak for the first time to an Albanian media to T7 and Gazeta Express in an interview with the journalist Berat Buzhala. Grenell will speak about Washington’s position in the dialogue process, relations with Kosovo’s caretaker PM Kurti and what Kurti told him about tariffs. Also Grenell is expected to explain the relations between US and Kosovo, US sanctions because of tariffs and the plans to resume Kosovo-Serbia dialogue. /GazetaExpress/