Serbia Pulled Diplomats From Macedonia Over 'Offensive' Actions

Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian President, on Monday said the whole staff of the Serbian embassy was withdrawn from Macedonia after Belgrade obtained "evidence of very offensive intelligence against the institutions of Serbia".

Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic gave a similar statement to the news agency Tanjug, also citing "offensive actions against the Republic of Serbia."

Both Vucic and Dacic also said "foreign powers" were also involved, but declined to provide more details.

Dacic told Tanjug that Serbia would take measures to protect its interests in Macedonia and added that next week, after the consultations, part of the diplomatic staff would return to Skopje. The ambassador would return later.

The President and Foreign Minister insisted that Serbia wished to maintain good relations with Skopje, adding, however, that the circumstance had changed in recent months.

"We will continue to develop friendly relations between Belgrade and Skopje. We only want for our people to be prepared and ready to protect the friendship of Serbs and Macedonians, but also for us to know how to act in the different and new environment that we have not been familiar with until a few months ago," Vucic added.

Late in May, the former ruling party in Macedonia, VMRO-DPMNE, led by Nikola Gruveski, was ousted from power and replaced with the rival Social Democratic Party led by Zoran Zaev.

Serbia unexpectedly withdrew all its diplomatic staff from Skopje, Macedonia, on Sunday.

Amid the reports the move followed a Macedonian plan to propose Kosovo's membership of UNESCO, which is seen contrary to Serbia's national interests, Macedonia issued a statement saying that "Macedonia develops friendly relations with all neighbouring countries."

"When...