Serbia’s Foreign Minister Marko Gjurić has responded to statements by Albania’s acting Minister for Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Ferit Hoxha, regarding the Iber River.
Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ferit Hoxha, expressed deep concern over Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s statement regarding the possibility of altering the course of the Ibar River and the involvement of Serbian experts and institutions in examining such a possibility.
He stressed that changing the course of a river that forms part of a transboundary water system cannot be treated as merely an internal matter of a single state.
Following this, Gjurić responded to the Albanian foreign minister, claiming that Hoxha’s statement was an attempt to divert attention from what he described as the “continued violation of the fundamental rights of Serbs” in Kosovo.
He also accused Albania of taking a “one-sided position” and remaining silent on issues that, according to him, concern “the rights and security of the Serbian community.”
Gjurić stated that Albania is not a riparian state and that the river does not pass through Albanian territory. According to Gjurić’s narrative, Tirana therefore has no territorial or hydrological basis to intervene in how Serbia manages its water resources within “its territory”. He went further, adding that “there is no place for Greater Albania.”!
Vučić’s statement has been widely described as controversial and alarming.
