SERBIA FM JEREMIC ON ICJ: "I HAVE NO DISCRETION"

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000683 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL KOC SE SUBJECT: SERBIA FM JEREMIC ON ICJ: "I HAVE NO DISCRETION" REF: (A) STATE 80111 (B) BELGRADE 770 Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff for Reasons 1.4 B/D. ¶1. (C) In a July 25 meeting with Ambassador Khalilzad, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuc Jeremic insisted that Serbia has no choice but to activate a request through the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence. Jeremic said Serbian President Boris Tadic had won the recent Serbian election after promising the Serbian public that, if re-elected, he would seek an ICJ advisory opinion instead of filing lawsuits in the ICJ against states that recognized Kosovo, a course he said had been favored by former Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Inasmuch as Tadic's more moderate line prevailed over Kostunica's preference for confrontation, Jeremic said Serbia must follow through in the ICJ. ¶2. (C) To the Ambassador's suggestion that an ICJ process would be not sit well with the Western states Serbia is otherwise actively cultivating (ref A),Jeremic replied, "I understand all your points about complicating EU membership and Euro-Atlantic integration, but I have no discretion on this." He said he would return to New York in mid-August to activate the ICJ request through UNGA. ¶3. (C) Jeremic allowed that an ICJ process might delay recognitions of Kosovo by UNGA members and said, "I won't pretend to be sorry about that." He contended, though, that Serbia would seek to mitigate the coming confrontation by reiterating that, win or lose at the ICJ, Serbia would not file lawsuits against individual states over their recognition of Kosovo. Further, he said, Serbia will present a straightforward question for referral to the ICJ -- is Kosovo's declaration of independence consistent with international law -- and would accept the resulting ICJ opinion even if ambiguous. He contended that Serbia would be politically more free to work with Kosovo on practical, non-status matters with the ICJ case pending or behind them. ¶4. (C) On EULEX deployment, Jeremic said only that express Security Council authorization is pre-requisite to Serbia acceptance of EULEX on the Kosovo scene. On the Kovacevic consular case (ref B),Jeremic said his government has urged him to return voluntarily to the U.S. as being in his long-term interest and has fired one involved consular employee and will likely fire another. He added though that the Serbian Constitution provides no possibility of extradition. Khalilzad