Gabriel Escobar

A senior US State Department official on Friday voiced hope that North Macedonia will be able to approve politically difficult constitutional changes that would help its bid to join the European Union.

Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Balkan policy, said during talks in the capital Skopje that the US strongly backs the country's EU accession bid.

The Higher Public Prosecutor's office in Kraljevo, central Serbia, ordered an investigation into three detained Kosovo policemen suspected of the illegal production, possession, carrying and trafficking of weapons and explosive materials..

The judge for the preliminary proceedings of the Higher Court in Kraljevo meanwhile ordered the detention of all three suspects.

He spoke after the meetings he had last week together with US emissary Gabriel Escobar in Belgrade and Pristina with the aim of de-escalating the situation in the north of Kosovo and pointed out that despite the hopes they had, tensions are still growing.

Kosovo's Prime Minister told the Associated Press that his cabinet took a different stance, calling the authorities in Serbia an "autocratic regime." "We insist that good behavior with an autocrat does not make him behave better. On the contrary," Kurti said.

BELGRADE - US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel Escobar said on Wednesday he had made it clear during a discussion with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday that "turning your back on the process (of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue) would be turning your back on Europe, with all the consequences that it entails in the failure of closer integration and closer relationship with Europe." <

Kosovo is facing an impending decision about whether or not to accept US and EU prescriptions for the 'de-escalation' of tensions in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo after recent violent unrest, with envoys  due to report back to Washington and Brussels with Pristina's response to their demands by the end of the week.

BRUSSELS/BELGRADE - The EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said on Wednesday violence was never acceptable and that a political solution to the current crisis in the north of Kosovo-Metohija was "urgently needed".

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak and US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel Escobar in Belgrade on Tuesday evening.

The meeting was also attended by the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Emanuele Giaufret and US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill.

The deadline that the US and the EU set for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti expires today, and Washington's special envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, said that if Kurti does not accept three conditions for calming the situation in the north of Kosovo, then it means that he does not want cooperation with the EU and the US and that it cannot go without consequences.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who met with the EU special envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajcak and US special Western Balkans envoy Gabriel Escobar in Belgrade on Tuesday evening, said he wanted to believe the part of the international community that had the biggest influence on Pristina also had the mechanisms that could lead to commitments undertaken and s