Macedonian Party Leaders Start Meeting to Resolve Crisis

The leaders of the four biggest political parties in Macedonia have started a meeting in a bid to start a dialogue aimed at defusing the political tensions, MIA news agency reported on Thursday.

US Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily and the head of the EU Delegation in Skopje Aivo Orav are attending the meeting as observers.

The meeting, which is being held behind closed doors, has brought together Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (VMRO-DPMNE), his government coalition partner Ali Ahmeti, leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), as well as the leader of opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) Zoran Zaev and Menduh Thaci, who is leading the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).

The meeting has been initiated by representatives of the international community following clashes in Kumanovo in northern Macedonia over the weekend between an armed group and police. Eight police officers were killed and 37 were wounded. Fourteen members of the armed group were also killed while 30 others were captured.

Zoran Zaev has initially refused to attend the meeting, saying he would meet Gruevski only in the presence of international mediators and foreign diplomats.

On Tuesday, Gruevski replaced two cabinet ministers and a security service chief in a bid to ease political tensions that have heightened since the start of May. Parliament endorsed the replacements on Wednesday.

The reshuffles came after a series of meetings between between Gruevski and "the ambassadors of a number of Western countries", MIA said without elaborating.

Zaev claims Gruevski's conservative government illegally wiretapped telephone communication of about  20,000 people, including police, judges, religious leaders, journalists and foreign...