Harmful and worrying initiatives in the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Mr. Porfirije received today at the Patriarchal Residence in Belgrade Mr. James O'Brien, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the United States Secretary of State, and Mr. Christopher Hill, Ambassador of the United States of America.
Emphasizing the importance of improving Serbia's relations with the United States of America in the spirit of friendship that characterized the relationship between the Serbian and American peoples for a long historical period, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church informed the guests of the unchanging position of the Serbian Orthodox Church that Kosovo and Metohija are part of the Republic of Serbia. Considering this fact, the Patriarch assessed the inclusion of Kosovo and Metohija in the Council of Europe as harmful.
Discussing inter-national and inter-state relations in the region, His Holiness expressed extreme concern and assessed as completely harmful the initiative to pass the resolution on Srebrenica in the General Assembly of the United Nations, while not questioning the fact that all those who have committed any war crime should to be brought to justice. Despite such initiatives, which do not bring anything good, but put peoples who have shared the same living space for centuries before new temptations and challenges, the Serbian Orthodox Church will continue to unyieldingly call for love and understanding, build peace both in Kosovo and Metohija and in Bosnia. and Herzegovina, stressed the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Serbs.

(SPC)