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While Serbia criticises Israeli recognition of KosovoтАЩs statehood, Turkey says KosovoтАЩs plan to move embassy to Jerusalem violates international law.
SerbiaтАЩs foreign minister has expressed dismay over IsraelтАЩs decision to recognise Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose statehood Belgrade denies, saying officials were тАЬnot happyтАЭ with the development.
The reaction came a day after Israel and Kosovo established diplomatic ties under a deal brokered by the United States, marking a victory for PristinaтАЩs efforts to gain full global recognition of the independence it declared in 2008 following a war with Serbia in the 1990s.
тАЬWe have invested serious efforts in our relations with Israel in recent years and we are not happy with this decision,тАЭ Serbian foreign minister Nikola Selakovic told public broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
IsraelтАЩs move will тАЬundoubtedly influence relations between Serbia and Israel,тАЭ he said.
Most Western countries have recognised Kosovo, but its rejection by SerbiaтАЩs key allies Russia and China has seen it locked out of the United Nations.
Until Monday, Israel was another key holdout on BelgradeтАЩs side.
Since establishing ties in 1991, the countries have maintained good relations with growing Israeli investment in the small Balkan state.
Turkey weighs in on embassy plan
In exchange for IsraelтАЩs recognition, Kosovo recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, becoming the first Muslim-majority territory to do so.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Monday confirmed he had approved KosovoтАЩs тАЬformal request to open an embassyтАЭ in the city.
To date, only the US and Guatemala have opened embassies in Jerusalem, while Serbia, Malawi and Honduras have previously pledged to do the same.
KosovoтАЩs embassy plans drew criticism from Turkey, with Ankara saying the proposed move violated UN resolutions and international law.
тАЬIt is clear that any step towards this direction will not serve the Palestinian cause and undermine the vision of a two-state solution,тАЭ foreign ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy said in a written statement on Monday.
US-brokered diplomatic deals
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) insisting that East Jerusalem тАУ illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 тАУ should serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
There is a global consensus against recognising Jerusalem as IsraelтАЩs capital until the Palestinian conflict is resolved.
In 2017, Trump shocked observers by saying the US would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognise the latter as the capital of Israel.
The embassy move in May the following year was celebrated in Israel but roundly criticised elsewhere.
The incoming administration of President Joe Biden has said it will keep the US embassy in Israel in Jerusalem, and continue to recognise the city as IsraelтАЩs capital.
Under Trump, the US also brokered a number of deals to establish diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Those agreements, known collectively as the Abraham Accords, were condemned by many majority-Muslim countries.
But unlike Kosovo, the Arab parties to the Abraham Accords have all maintained that their diplomatic missions in Israel will be in Tel Aviv.
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