Kosovo Security Force

But it is also necessary that the US fully clarifies its position, added the chairman of the Committee on Kosovo and Metohija of the Serbian National Assembly, who comes from the ranks of the ruling SNS.

NATO sources explained that there was an exchange of letters between then Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and former Secretary General Andreas Fogh Rasmussen.

"Basically, then prime minister Thaci took an obligation that the KSF (Kosovo Security Force) would not go north of the Ibar River without an agreement with the KFOR commander," one NATO source explained to RFE.

He added that there was also dissatisfaction about "the untimely decision on the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (into an army)."

The head of the NGO said that now is not the moment because the finalization of negotiations with Pristina, which should be completed as soon as possible, is in the interest of the security of the whole region and should currently have priority.

As stated, this was done because of the taxes (increased by 100 percent) that Pristina has imposed on goods from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He stressed he was worried because of "the rhetoric, narrative, actions, which may be political in nature but with consequences on the security."

Kosovo's Defence Ministry will have six million more euros to spend in the 2019 budget than it had last year - after the country's parliament voted to expand the competences of the current lightly armed Kosovo Security Force, KSF, and start its transformation into a regular army.

The budget planned for defence in 2019 is 58.7 million euros; the previous year it was 52.3 million.

Otherwise, Pristina will face US sanctions in the shape of Washington withdrawing its support to the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), Kosovo-based Albanian language press is reporting on Monday.

According to Klan Kosova, the document has been sent to the Pristina government.

However, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) can't, he said, according to Politika.

In an interview with the newspaper, Grasso said that "the special operations unit, which can be armed with long rifles" belongs to the Kosovo police and as such has the mandate to enforce the law throughout Kosovo "without the obligation to seek approval."

Stoltenberg announced that as Kosovo Security Force (KSF) "evolves," NATO will "reexamine its level of engagement with the KSF in the new year."

He said this during a phone conversation on Wednesday with the prime minister of the provisional Pristina institutions, Ramush Haradinaj.