Macedonia's Govt, Opposition to Try to Defuse Tensions at Thursday Meet

The leaders of the four biggest political parties in Macedonia will meet on Thursday in a bid to reduce the political tensions, the country's private TV channel Telma has reported.

The meeting will bring together Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (VMRO-DPMNE), his government coalition partner Ali Ahmeti, leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), as well as the leader of opposition Socialists (SDSM) Zoran Zaev and Menduh Thaci, who is leading the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).

The meeting has been initiated by representatives of the international community as a compromise solution to opening a dialogue for resolving the current political crisis, Telma said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day Macedonia's Parliament endorsed changes in the cabinet and the security service UBK proposed by Gruevski.