Pristina (AFP)

The Kosovar Parliament is meeting on Thursday to vote for its own dissolution, paving the way for the holding of early parliamentary elections, a development that will delay the resumption of dialogue with Serbia, desired by the West.

This vote comes because of the impossibility of the formation of a new majority, after the resignation in July of the Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

A former commander of Kosovar guerrilla warfare during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbian forces, Haradinaj, 51, has announced his resignation after being summoned by an international tribunal on suspicion of war crimes.

He has already appeared for the first time on July 24 before this Court, set up in 2015 in The Hague.

This court is charged with investigating alleged crimes committed by the Albanian guerrillas (KLA) in Kosovo, mainly against Serbs, Roma and Albanian opponents of the KLA, during and after the conflict.

Last war in the former Yugoslavia, the Kosovo war killed more than 13,000 people, including more than 11,000 Albanian Kosovars, 2,000 Serbs and a few hundred Roma.

- Elections in 45 days -

The session of the Parliament was convened for 10:00 am (0800 GMT). If the Assembly is dissolved, the authorities will have 45 days to organize the vote. The date of October 6 is already mentioned by the press. President Hashim Thaçi could make an official announcement in the wake of the vote.

These developments in Kosovo will delay the resumption of dialogue with Serbia, which refuses to recognize the independence that its former southern province, supported by most Western countries, proclaimed in 2008.

Started in 2011 with the mediation of the European Union, this dialogue has stalled for months.

Barely taken over last summer, he had stopped short after the Serb obstruction in November to Kosovo's bid for Interpol. Kosovo responded with the introduction of a 100% tax on products imported from Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who met US PM Mike Pompeo in New York on Tuesday to discuss the resumption of dialogue, said he could resume "early December, at best," while waiting for the formation of the new Kosovar government.

He assured that Serbia was ready to revive it, but on one condition: that Kosovo renounce the taxation of Serbian products.

Despite pressure from Brussels and Washington, Mr. Haradinaj refused to repeal these taxes.

Political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri believes that reviving dialogue will be crucial when forming any new government.

- New ratio of forces? -

"A lot of time has been lost, and the government that will not have a positive approach to dialogue with Serbia will not be tolerated" by Westerners, he told AFP.

Analysts also say the elections could undermine the balance of power in this fragile democracy.

Parliament was dominated in the past by coalitions led by former warlords, such as Haradinaj or Thaçi.

One of the possibilities mentioned is the alliance between two opposition parties, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK, center-right) and the Vetevendosje (left nationalist).

Although they are ideologically very different, their union could push President Thaçi's Democratic Party of Kosovo into opposition for the first time in more than a decade, says another analysts, Ardian Çollaku.

This "would be healthy for democracy in the country," he adds.

Analysts still do not exclude Mr Haradinaj from the game. He said he would return to politics if he was not charged by the Hague court.

Mr. Haradinaj is not his first case for war crimes.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had already acquitted it, in 2008 and 2012, of crimes against Serbian civilians, but also Albanian Roma and Kosovars.

© 2019 AFP