Kosovo - First Daltonsbriefs Country Specific Site

If you're a regular reader here at Daltonsbriefs International affairs blog, then you know that I've been watching the action in Kosovo and Serbia for the last couple months. I decided this morning that it might be a good idea to split off a separate site just for this issue. So, the beginning of our first Country Specific site.

Kosovo - Daltonsbriefs Country Specific

Head over for an update and some of my history research into the conflicts and problems in Kosovo and the Balkan region.

US Embassy attacked in Serbia

Looks like we chose the right people to side with, Kosovo. How dare the Serbians attack us?

Reuters post on Serbian attack on our emabassy in Serbia.

Serbia recalls US Ambassador

According to news reports (Fox and Reuters):

BELGRADE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Serbia said on Monday it was recalling its
ambassador to the United States after Washington recognised Serbia's breakaway
province of Kosovo as independent.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica
told a special session of parliament the U.S. move continued NATO's aggression
which began when it bombed Serbia in 1999 to expel its forces from Kosovo and
stop a brutal Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
He said
Serbia would announce similar steps against any other countries that recognised
Kosovo but did not mention the European Union states that also said on Monday
they were recognising Pristina.

Kostunica said recognition showed the
"true face" of America's policy of force.
"Kosovo has not been lost but a
new page in our history has begun. The main goal of Serbia's state policy is the
return of Kosovo to Serbia," he said in the address carried live on state
television.

He said an EU police and justice mission that would soon be
deployed to Kosovo was illegal and represented a breach of Serbian sovereignty.

He appealed for peaceful protests by Serbs after two days of at times
violent protests in Belgrade.

"Serbia has to maintain stability in order
to regain Kosovo," he said.
Kosovo declared independence on Sunday after
almost nine years under U.N. administration.

The United States and the
EU's biggest nations recognised it as a new country on Tuesday.

AP Reported a Russian Response with some implicit threats too:

Russia’s parliament said Monday Moscow had the right to review its stance
on separatist states in former Soviet republics, if Kosovo is recognized as
independent, Interfax news agency reported.

Sovereignty for Kosovo “would give Russia every right to build a new
format for its relations with self-proclaimed states,” said a declaration
adopted by both houses of parliament after Kosovo’s declaration of independence
Sunday.

“Now that the situation in Kosovo has become an international
precedent, Russia should view existing territorial conflicts taking into account
the Kosovo scenario,” the declaration said.