The US envoy to Serbia and Kosovo has urged the former war foes to focus on building economic links as he tries his hand at one of the region's most intractable disputes. Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany who was appointed last year to oversee talks between the Balkan neighbours, made the economic push during his visit to Pristina on Thursday and Belgrade on Friday.
"I am going to leave the politics to you all," he said at a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. "All I am trying to do is to push both sides together to say, 'let's remember that we need to create more jobs and more opportunities for young people'."
The trip came days after Grenell helped broker a deal between the two sides to work towards restoring a direct flight between their capitals - a connection that was dropped some 20 years ago when they were embroiled in war.
The announcement came as a rare act of goodwill between neighbours whose relationship is still poisoned by tensions from the 1998-99 war, in which ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo broke away from Serbia and later declared independence. EU-led talks to normalise their ties have been frozen for more than a year.
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