Escobar gets fired?
Gabriel Escobar may no longer be U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans due to the events in Kosovo and Metohija.
Source: RT.rs
On February 27 in Brussels and on March 18 in Ohrid, Escobar mediated an agreement on the road to the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, but he did not foresee the escalation of the situation in the three municipalities in the north of the so-called Kosovo, writes "Albanian Post", adding that it could have personal consequences for him.
Allegedly, diplomatic sources say that due to the escalation of the situation and the stagnation of the normalization process, Escobar could give way to another diplomat, reports Russia Today Balkan.
With the departure of Escobar, if it happens as the sources of "Albanian Post" say, American Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill will have a much more significant role in the dialogue process and will be the "voice of American authority" regarding the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and the implementation of the points of the agreement.
Although Escobar stated that the US will recognize the results of the "container election" in the north, Hill stated on behalf of official Washington that the US does not support them because the Serbs did not participate in the process, and the vote was organized at a particularly sensitive moment for the dialogue process.
In addition to Hill, the name of Christopher Robinson, currently the US ambassador to Latvia, who before being appointed to this position was the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, is also mentioned.
During his 23 years as a diplomat, Robinson served as the Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Russia, as well as the Deputy Director for Russian Affairs at the State Department.
He was also a political advisor at the US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Austria.
Christopher Landberg's name is also mentioned as Escobar's successor. Landberg is currently Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator for the US State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism.
