An agreement between Kosovo and Serbia expected to be signed at the White House on Friday has already caused ructions in Kosovo’s coalition government. Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj has announced that the party does not support the agreement and may leave the government.

“AAK is not ready for cooperation in governance or in any form, because we will not help an agreement in which Serbia, even indirectly, becomes a party to Kosovo’s resources,” Haradinaj stated.

The party, who are represented in the talks by Justice Minister Selim Selimi and foreign minister Meliza Haradinaj-Stublla, have taken objection to a point in the agreement relating to Lake Ujmani. 

Speaking to Radio Free Europe earlier on Thursday, Haradinaj urged Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti not to sign the agreement unless the point on Lake Ujmani was removed. “Ujmani is a lake that has 9.2 kilometers in the territory of Kosovo, and has 2.7 in the territory of Serbia,” Haradinaj told Radio Free Europe. “There is also a hydropower plant inside Kosovo.”

Haradinaj added that he was not interested in a trilateral arrangement involving Serbia over the use of the lake’s resources. “We are open with the US Department of Energy for the future of Ujman, but not for a tripartite agreement where Serbia is also a party”, the former prime minister said.

Created in the 1970s under socialist Yugoslavia, the Ujmani reservoir lies in the mainly Serb populated north of Kosovo and is a source of drinking water for around a third of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people. It is claimed by both Serbia and Kosovo.