With the aim of clarifying the situation, after the Government’s warnings about the opening of the Ibri bridge in Mitrovica without coordination with KFOR, within this month Kosovo became a destination for visits by high-ranking figures from the United States of America and NATO .

The bridge over the Iber was also a topic in the meetings that Prime Minister Albin Kurti had with the Head of the American Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, the Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Foreign Policy and Security, Boris Ruge, and the Commander of the Joint Forces Command Allies in Naples, American Admiral Stuart B. Munsch

In the eyes of former NATO spokesman at the time of the Kosovo war, Jamie Shea, now a security professor in Brussels, these visits show the “commitment” of the United States of America and NATO to prevent another attack. like the one in Banja where the police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was killed, while the responsibility was taken by the Serbian master criminal Milan Radojicic who with a group of terrorists tried to annex a part of the north.

“Getting a first-hand perspective of KFOR and EULEX on the ground regarding the security situation and their readiness to respond was undoubtedly useful for the high-level visits as well. “No one wants more violence and certainly not a repeat of the Banja incident of September last year,” said Shea in a conversation with Albanian Post.

In his view, a lesson of the past in the Western Balkans is that stability requires continuous international commitment and that prevention is always better than “cure”, as he added that the international community was concerned about the escalation of the situation after continuous insistence of the Kosovar executive to open the bridge in Mitrovica.

“Certainly the possible opening of the bridge in Mitrovica has caused concern about possible trouble or even an outbreak of violence in the North. Although the Western ambassadors in Pristina have given their messages, in my opinion it was useful that these messages were given by other high officials who came to Pristina and that had an impact,” added Shea.

Meanwhile, the Government of Kosovo assessed the visit of the American spy chief as an “important historical moment” in the relations between Kosovo and the United States.

But the visit of one of the central figures in the administration of the American president, Joe Biden, according to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Croatia, Miro Kovac, happened as the USA is committed to stability in the Balkans.

“The recent visit of the director of the CIA, Williams Burns, shows that the USA is clearly committed to guaranteeing stability in the Balkans. It will not allow any secession in Bosnia-Herzegovina nor in the North of Kosovo. This was the main message of Burns’ visit. The US seeks cooperation, not confrontation between the Balkan states”, Kovac emphasized in a statement for AP.

For Gëzim Visoka, the professor of Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland, the visit of the highest officials of the most credible world security institutions in the region, especially that of Burns, should be read as a warning to the destabilizing forces in the Western Balkans.

“Although it is difficult to know the real reason for the CIA Director’s visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, we can speculate that this visit represents a new phase of American efforts to maintain stability in the region. It seems that we are moving from low-level diplomacy led by the American ambassadors in the region to a diplomacy of intelligence and credible warning and punishment from Washington”, Viskoka emphasized to the Albanian Post.

Burns’ visit to Kosovo followed the statements of the American ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, that his country has been challenged in several aspects by the Government led by Albin Kurti. The USA and other countries of the European Union have criticized some decisions and actions taken recently by the Government that were considered “unilateral” and “uncoordinated”.

Otherwise, in the previous annual report on the assessment of global security threats, in March, the American intelligence community warned of an increase in the level of risk from the further escalation of violence in the Western Balkans region throughout 2024.

Also, although not mentioned directly, the terrorist attack of September 24, 2023 in the village of Banjë t Zveçani in the North of Kosovo, where a Kosovo policeman was killed, was taken for reference in the US intelligence report on the assessment of security in the Western Balkans for the year 2024 ./AP