Trump claims stopped 'mass killings' between Serbia, Kosovo

ANI
20 Sep 2020, 13:25 GMT+10

Washington [US], September 20 (ANI/Sputnik): US President Donald Trump said during a campaign rally in North Carolina that he could qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he, in fact, was nominated this year, for brokering a termination of decades-long "mass killings" between Serbia and Kosovo.

"Next story I'm sure it's a Nobel Prize for peace. We are stopping mass killings between Kosovo and Serbia. They have been killing each other for so many [years]. They are going to stop killing. I said 'fellas, let's get together.' You know, they've been doing it for hundreds of years frankly under different names," Trump said.

Trump was nominated for Nobel earlier this month by a Norwegian lawmaker for his efforts brokering a landmark peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. A similar agreement was signed shortly later between Israel and Bahrain under Washington's mediation.

In mid-September, Trump hosted talks between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, but no particular breakthrough was achieved to resolve their strife.

Formerly a province of Serbia, Kosovo shook to an armed confrontation between Serbian security forces and the Albanian-led Kosovo Liberation Army, seeking the status of a constituent republic for Kosovo in what was then Yugoslavia. The conflict triggered unauthorized NATO airstrikes in the region from March 1999 to June 1999 on the grounds that the Yugoslav authorities were allegedly committing ethnic cleansing against Kosovar Albanians.

Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in February 2008 and has since been seeking to gain recognition. Serbia has not recognised Kosovo's independence and launched a campaign to convince other countries to not recognise it either. (ANI/Sputnik)