Defuse the tension.. Kosovo reopens the crossing, and the Serbian president promises to remove the barriers

Today, Thursday, Kosovo reopened the main border crossing with Serbia after removing a barrier that led to its closure, and Serbian President Alexander Vucic announced that the barriers - erected by the Serb minority in northern Kosovo and led to strained relations between the two countries - will be removed from this morning.

Kosovo had closed the main "Merdir" crossing on the border with Serbia yesterday, which is the third border crossing to be closed since the tenth of December, but it kept 3 other crossing points open before it reopened the main crossing today.

Yesterday, Kosovo released a former police officer from the Serb minority, whose arrest caused a major crisis with Serbia and raised international concerns.

Yesterday evening, Vucic said that he spent a "difficult night of discussions" with a group of Kosovo Serbs, adding that after he listened to their demands, he asked them to remove the barriers they had erected in northern Kosovo, and that they responded to him.

It is scheduled, according to the Serbian president, that the barriers in northern Kosovo will be removed, starting this morning, and that this process may continue for 48 hours.

Vucic threatened that these barriers would be re-established irreversibly if Kosovo Serbs were arrested after their removal.

On December 10, groups from the Serb minority in northern Kosovo began setting up truck barricades to protest the arrest by Pristina authorities of Serbian policeman Diane Pantek on suspicion of "terrorist acts", which escalated tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

Yesterday, a joint US-European statement called on Kosovo and Serbia to strengthen what it called an environment conducive to reconciliation, in addition to calling on all parties to exercise restraint and take immediate measures to calm the situation and refrain from any provocations or threats.

International calls and discussions to defuse tension were repeated after the Serbian president ordered last Monday to put the army on high alert, amid news of Pristina's intention to launch an attack on the northern regions where the Serb minority is demonstrating, while Russia announced its support for Serbia.

Kosovo, whose majority population is Albanian, seceded from Serbia in 1999 and declared its independence in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it part of its territory and supports a Serb minority in it.