"Little Trump" will mediate between Belgrade and Pristina

US President Donald Trump has appointed the controversial diplomat Richard Grenell as a special presidential envoy for negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, the White House announced.

He will perform this duty in parallel with the position of the US ambassador to Germany, which he has held since May of last year.

Grenell (53), whom critics call "little Trump", has a reputation as a "mischievous" diplomat who manages to force Berlin, after much resistance, to comply with the will of Washington.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, outgoing Prime Minister Ramus Haradinaj and Foreign Affairs Minister Bedzet Pacoli welcomed Grenell's appointment.

"This appointment is another proof that President Trump, the American administration and the entire American country stand behind us for every significant step. Now we have more confidence in the dialogue process and the possibility to achieve recognition by Serbia and membership in the United Nations and thus complete the international consolidation of our country," wrote Thaci on Facebook.

Haradinaj wrote on Facebook that they will work together on unconditional dialogue to achieve mutual recognition within existing borders.

Pacoli assessed that the appointment of Grenel shows the commitment of the US and Trump's personal interest in achieving mutual recognition of Kosovo and Serbia.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that the decision of the US President to appoint Grenel was surprising news for him and announced that he would have a telephone conversation with him during the day.

Vučić said that the negotiations between Belgrade and Priština are already taking place under the auspices of the European Union and that the special envoy was Matthew Palmer.

"American President Donald Trump has now appointed a new man and I have a conversation with Grenell today. He is, of course, a serious man trusted by Trump and we will see in which direction it will go," said Vučić.

He added that Serbia "does not express dissatisfaction" with the dialogue under the auspices of the EU.

Balkan experts Florijan Biber and Tim Žuda expressed surprise at the appointment.

Bieber, of the University of Graz, wondered what the role would be for Palmer, who was named special representative for the Western Balkans by the State Department last month.

"If (Donald) Trump appoints Richard Grenell as special envoy for Serbia and Kosovo, what is Matthew Palmer's role," Bieber wrote on Twitter. He added that it is also a "worrying message for the EU-US joint position".

As ambassador, Grenell has a history of alienating Germany and the EU, Bieber pointed out, citing as an example Grenell's calls for support for the right and extreme right. "Not a good sign," Bieber writes.

British journalist and analyst Tim Jude said on Twitter that the appointment of Grenell was "strange".

"First, the USA appointed as the ambassador for the Balkans the distinguished Matt Palmer, who knows the region and its leaders well, and now they appoint someone else without any history of knowledge of the Balkans or knowledge, as far as we know, of the Serbia-Kosovo negotiations," said Žuda.

Analyst Jasmin Mujanović says that Grenell's appointment "seriously undermines Palmer's authority and prospects, especially given Grenell's complete ignorance of current regional issues."

German media also covered Trump's decision yesterday.

The appointment of the controversial diplomat shows the renewed interest of the US in resolving the conflict, but also the possibility of additional damage to relations between Berlin and Washington and the reduction of the ability of the Western powers to mediate peacefully with one voice, according to Deutsche Welle.

The magazine "Spiegel" writes that, unlike his predecessors in Berlin, Grenell did not become a popular and popular figure in the political and social life of the German capital. Deutsche Welle describes him as Trump's unmasker, a man with no hair on his tongue and no qualms when it comes to meddling in German domestic politics.

Last year, he became the first openly gay person to hold an important position in the Trump administration. He has not even sat down in the ambassador's chair in Berlin yet, and he has already annoyed the future hosts with an interview for the right-wing portal Breitbart. He said his goal is to strengthen "conservative forces in Europe", alluding to Viktor Orbán, Matteo Salvini and his favorite - Sebastian Kurz, according to DW.

Grenell continued to share lessons and make threats. Thus, he demanded German businessmen not to cooperate with Iran, threatened sanctions to all those participating in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, and asked Germany to buy American gas instead of Russian gas. Then he also said that the US will limit intelligence cooperation with Germany if the Germans do not exclude the Chinese Huawei from the construction of the 5G network.

Because of these and other, later, statements and not very diplomatic statements, the American ambassador in Berlin is an isolated figure who has no access to influential people and with whom few politicians, except members of the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU ), wants to be seen, according to Spiegel.

"What this man is doing is unheard of in international diplomacy," Martin Schulz, a previous candidate for German chancellor, once said. "If the German chancellor declared in Washington that he was there to support the Democrats, he would have been kicked out immediately."

"Spiegel" interlocutors said that Grenell knows very little about Germany and Europe and that he does not pay attention to the reports compiled for him by the embassy staff.

The question is whether Palmer gets a reinforcement or a controller, because Richard Grenell is undoubtedly Trump's man and it is not yet clear whether his appointment is a message of a strong American presence, or whether the White House and the State Department are pursuing separate policies, according to Deutsche Welle.

Grenell has gained extensive experience as a political and media advisor to Republican politicians. He is known for his open criticism of the media that he does not like, and as a rule, these are the same media that Donald Trump does not like either.

Before coming to Berlin, however, he was the US's longest-serving UN spokesman. Because of that experience, he is more than qualified to mediate in conflicting interests that have long cast a shadow over the peace agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, a high-ranking Balkan diplomat told Deutsche Welle, on condition of anonymity.