Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with the Patriarch of Serbia, His Holiness Porfirije, to discuss the explosive situation in the Kosovo and Metohija province, the Tanjug news agency reported.
The meeting reportedly took place on Monday evening at the Patriarchal residence, and in the wake of an insolent decision by Kosovo Albanian leadership to prevent the Patriarch of Serbia from entering the province before Christmas, as based on the Gregorian calendar.
Several Serbian media outlets reported that Vucic had asked His Holiness to provide his blessing for the defense of Kosovo and Metohija.
The situation in Kosovo and Metohija remains tense, with ethnic Serbs in the north of the province remaining at barricades for nearly three weeks.
The situation escalated sharply on Dec. 6, when Kosovo Albanian special forces, accompanied by patrols of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), began to occupy the premises of election commissions in northern Kosovo and Metohija. Ethnic Serbs actively opposed this move, driving back the Kosovo Albanians and EULEX forces across the Ibar River.
Two days later, roughly 350 Kosovo police officers entered the Serb-inhabited north of the province in armored vehicles and blockaded the northern part of the city of Mitrovica.
