Serbia, Kosovo 'never going to be one again': Rice

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Russia must accept the reality that "Serbia and Kosovo are never going to be one again" or risk instability there, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published Wednesday.

"I hope that the Russians are as committed as we are to a stable outcome in the Balkans and to being constructive in the Balkans," Rice said after talks on Kosovo in Brussels last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"But the fact of the matter is Kosovo and Serbia are never going to be one again, and that's the reality," Rice was quoted as saying in USA Today.

"And if you don't deal with that reality, you're only going to sow the seeds of considerable discontent and considerable instability," Rice said.

The Albanian-majority...