United Nations Security Council (UNSC) remained divided and unlikely to come out with a common position on the Kosovo issue in the foreseeable future two days after the province declared its independence from Serbia.

After two sessions and long hours of debating, the UNSC was nowhere near to finding a solution agreeable to all parties, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on UNSC members “to refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardise security in Kosovo and the region,” according to a statement made available by the UN press service.

Shortly after Kosovo declared independence on February 17, the UNSC gathered in a closed-door emergency session at Russia's request to discuss the situation. A day later, the UNSC held its second emergency session, but this time an open one. The session, which included Serbian president Boris Tadic at the request of Russia and Serbia, highlighted the deep divisions within the UNSC on the issue of Kosovo's independence.

Tadic branded Kosovo's declaration of independence "a flagrant violation” of UNSC resolution 1244, passed in 1999, and requested that the UNSC took measures to restore the province's  compliance with the provisions of the resolution, the UNSC press service said in a statement.

Serbia's president also noted that Kosovo's independence could set a dangerous precedent to all other separatist movements in the world. “There are dozens of various Kosovos in the world and all of them lie in wait for Kosovo’s act of secession to become a reality and to be established as an acceptable norm. I warn you most seriously of the danger of the escalation of many of existing conflicts, the flaring up of frozen conflicts and the instigation of new ones,” Tadic said.

Tadic once again stressed Serbia would never let go of Kosovo and would never recognise it as an independent state.

During the debate, Tadic was fully backed by Russian ambassador to the UN Vitali Churkin, who said that Moscow completely understood Serbia's stand and supported its demands for the restoration of Serbia's territorial integrity, as quoted in the UNSC media statement.

Churkin called Kosovo's independence declaration "a blatant breach of the norms and principles of international law" and requested that it be declared null and void because it threatened peace on the Balkans.

US ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalizad said Kosovo's declaration of independence was “fully consistent” with resolution 1244 of 1999 and that Kosovo's recognition by a number of countries was “irreversible”.

According to Jean-Maurice Ripert, French ambassador to UN, “the common future of the peoples of the western Balkans in the framework of the European Union was the best guarantee for their reconciliation,” according to the UNSC.