Kosovo Delays Border Deal Vote Until Wednesday

Kosovo's government has postponed sending the controversial agreement on border demarcation with Montenegro to parliament for a vote until Wednesday.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa delayed the vote after a meeting with the speaker of parliament, Kadri Veseli, and the US ambassador Greg Delawie.

The extra time will allow parliament to first vote on the motion of no-confidence initiated by the opposition Nisma party.

The government on Monday announced that, after the discussions with its coalition partners, Mustafa's Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, and Veseli's Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, they had agreed that "the government meeting to decide on proceeding with the draft law for ratification of the agreement on border demarcation will be held after ... the parliamentary session set for Wednesday".

The opposition Vetevendosje party called the decision a climb-down. "The government did not have the courage to bring the agreement to the assembly," the leader of Vetevendosje, Visar Ymeri, claimed.

"Ongoing disagreements [over the border agreement] show that the government know that this agreement is wrong," he added.

Mustafa had earlier said the government would send the disputed agreement to parliament on Monday.

The opposition Vetevendosje, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK and Nisma parties have continuously opposed the deal with Montenegro since it was signed in August 2015.

They claim it robs Kosovo of substantial amounts of land on the border between the two countries. They remain committed to opposing the agreement whenever it comes to parliament.

"I am convinced the demarcation [deal][ will fall, together with the government," the chief of the Vetevendosje parliamentary group, Glauk Konjufca, told a...