• Serbia will ask NATO forces to let it send military.
• However, it doesn’t expect approval.
• Josep Borrel warned last month of escalation and bloodshed.

Serbia will ask NATO forces to let it send military and police to northern Kosovo, but it doesn’t expect approval, President Aleksandar Vucic said.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy leader, warned last month of “escalation and bloodshed” after emergency talks between Kosovo and Serbia failed to resolve a disagreement over car license plates used by Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority.

Belgrade’s proposal to send the military to the former Serbian region, now independent Kosovo, might aggravate Balkan tensions.

Vucic said he would request the deployment of the Serbian military in a letter to the head of NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo.

“We will ask the KFOR commander to deploy the Serbian army and police,” Vucic said, adding that he had “no illusions” that the request would be accepted.

Belgrade’s plea to NATO would be the first under a UN Security Council resolution that concluded a 1998-1999 conflict in which NATO intervened against Serbia to safeguard Albanian-majority Kosovo.

The resolution indicated Serbia might send up to 1,000 military, police, and customs officers to Orthodox Christian religious sites, Serb-majority communities, and border crossings. At the time of the resolution, 2008 independent

Kosovo was still part of Serbia.

Belgrade refuses to recognize Kosovo’s statehood, backed by Russia and China.

NATO has 3,700 peacekeepers in the former Serbian province to avert ethnic conflict.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s office called Serbia’s decision a “act of aggression” that would destabilize the region.

Vucic’s comments follow a spate of incidents and escalating tension between Kosovo authorities and northern Kosovo Serbs.

Saturday, Kosovo Serbs and police officers fired gunfire in the dangerous north, and Kosovo’s president delayed municipal elections until next year.

Serbs blocked important routes in the north to protest the detention of a former Kosovo police officer who quit last month with other ethnic Serbs.

Former policeman Dejan Pantic was arrested Tuesday for allegedly targeting election commission offices, police officers, and election officials.

Serb mayors, local magistrates, and 600 police officers resigned last month in protest against a government proposal to replace Belgrade-issued license plates with Pristina-issued plates.

Saturday’s blockage slowed traffic, and police closed two Kosovo-Serbia border crossings. They alleged they were fired upon near a Serbian lake. No reported injuries.

Kosovar President Osmani postponed local elections in Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan, and Leposavic until April 23.

The EU has advised Serbia and Kosovo to normalize relations if they want to join the group.

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