Publish Date: 22 August 2022 - 17:40

TEHRAN, Aug. 22 (MNA) – Serbia's President has called on NATO to "do their job" in Kosovo, warning if it doesn't that Serbia itself will move to protect its minority in the breakaway province.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic made the statement In a fiery televised address to his nation that followed the collapse of political talks between Serbian and Kosovo leaders earlier this week in Brussels, ABC reported.

"We have nowhere to go, we are cornered," Vucic said.

Vucic also criticized NATO for increasing its presence in the northern part of Kosovo.

Kosovo Albanian "gangs" need to be stopped from crossing into northern Kosovo, where most Kosovo Serbs live, he also added.

Already tense relations between the two neighbors worsened recently after Kosovo authorities said they would require local Serbs to switch their car number plates from Serbian to Kosovan ones.

Kosovo, which Albanians predominantly inhabit, broke away from Serbia in 1999 and declared its independence in 2008. 

Serbia, which considers Kosovo as its southern province based on its constitution and UN Security Council Resolution 1244, does not accept Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence and demands the annulment of Kosovo's independence document through diplomatic and peaceful means.

NATO troops — who have been stationed in Kosovo following the 1998-99 war between Serbian forces and Kosovo separatists — have been deployed at main roads in the north following the collapse of EU-brokered talks.

RHM/PR