Israeli Ambassador to Serbia Jahel Vilan says Israel recognized Kosovo on September 4th

Israeli Ambassador to Serbia Jahel Vilan says Israel recognized Kosovo on September 4th
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vuiqi., And the Ambassador of Israel to Belgrade, Yahel Vilan.
 The new Israeli ambassador to Serbia, Jahel Vilan, said that it is no longer a question of whether Israel will recognize Kosovo or not, because he did so on September 4th.

Mutual recognition between Kosovo and Israel is included in an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, signed at the White House on 4 September.

"Israel has not signed anything in Washington. We were not part of that meeting. The agreement was signed between the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti, and the United States. Our prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] welcomed the mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo," Vilan told N1 television in Serbia.

Vilan said that when he met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the inaugural meeting, they talked about improving relations between Israel and Serbia.

Asked how Vucic commented on Israel's recognition of Kosovo, Vilan said "this is not something Vucic is happy with."

"But Israel is a sovereign state and this is our decision. The agreement was signed, it is not something that Vucic or I will change. We should work on improving relations and not deal too much with something that was done two and a half weeks ago in Washington," the ambassador said.

Asked how he commented on the fact that Serbia, with the agreement signed in Washington, has agreed to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Vilan said that this "is very positive, it is good news".

He also said he had met with his Palestinian counterpart in Belgrade, Mohamed Nabhan, who had previously expressed hope that Serbia would not relocate the embassy to Jerusalem.

Vilan said the meeting with Nabhani was "useful" and that "there is no disagreement with him here".

With the agreement signed in Washington, in the presence of US President Donald Trump, Kosovo has pledged to establish diplomatic relations with Israel and to open its diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, while Serbia has pledged to relocate its existing embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Three days after the agreement in Washington, Brussels has warned that "any diplomatic step that could call into question the EU's common position on Jerusalem is worrying."

The status of Jerusalem is a contentious issue between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel claims the whole as its capital, while the Palestinians see East Jerusalem - which was occupied by Israel in 1967 - as the capital of their future state.

In 2017, the United States decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and, based on that decision, moved the embassy to Jerusalem.

However, few countries - none from the European Union - have taken such a step.
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