Serbian Publicist Calls Vučić’s Plan to Divert the Ibar River a “Pipe Dream

Serbia is considering the possibility of diverting the course of the Ibar River within its territory, according to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

To assess whether the idea is feasible, the government in Belgrade has already hired experts.

Speaking to Serbian media on Sunday, Vučić accompanied the announcement with a threat, saying that they would then see what the Albanians would do and how they would behave.

He said specialists in the field had been called in, including representatives of the construction sector, engineers and other experts. According to Vučić, because of what he described as the mistreatment of the Serbian people, Serbia has various reasons to divert the course of the Ibar, after which, as he put it, the reaction and behavior of the Albanians would be seen.

This is not the first time the Serbian president has floated such an idea.

In 2024, immediately after the attack on critical infrastructure at Ibar-Lepenac, for which Serbs themselves are accused, Vučić said that Serbia had a plan to divert the Ibar within its territory.

Serbian publicist Zlatoje Martinov described the announcement as an irresponsible statement and an empty threat.

According to him, the idea is completely absurd, and implementing it would come at an extremely high cost to Serbia.

Martinov told “Bota sot” that this was yet another claim by Vučić with no connection to reality. He said diverting the Ibar River would require an extraordinarily complex infrastructure project from a technical standpoint and would cost Serbia several billion euros.

The publicist also questioned why Serbia would take out large loans from foreign banks. He stressed that the country is barely managing to finance Vučić’s megalomaniacal “EXPO 2027” project, while work is being delayed and the Serbian president is concerned about whether all the buildings will be completed by next summer.

Martinov believes that to put this plan into effect, Vučić would also need the approval of Europe and the world, which, in his view, he would not obtain.

He argued that rerouting the Ibar riverbed and “destroying Gazivoda Lake” would require not only vast sums of money and many years of technical work, but also international approval. According to Martinov, Vučić does not have such approval, and no one could obtain it, because this action would constitute a kind of crime against the people of Kosovo, as well as against the Serbs in Kosovo, whom the Serbian president swears by and claims to support.

In conclusion, Martinov described the Serbian president’s idea as more ridiculous than threatening.

According to him, powerlessness and anger often lead to misguided steps. Martinov said that Vučić’s statement, although intended as a threat against Kosovo, actually provokes more laughter than fear because implementing it in practice would be extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible. For this reason, he described the plan as one of Aleksandar Vučić’s “pipe dreams.”

The issue of diverting the Ibar River is of great importance to Kosovo.

The river is directly connected to the Gazivoda/Ujman water system and the Ibar-Lepenac canal.

Such an intervention would not be an ordinary diversion, but an action with a direct impact on Kosovo’s water and electricity supply, particularly at the two major power plants, Kosovo A and Kosovo B.

The European Union has also responded to Vučić’s idea.

The EU has called for statements about potentially diverting the Ibar River, as well as actions that do not contribute to normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, to be avoided.

On August 11, a European Commission spokesperson said that progress toward normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia could be achieved only through dialogue.

In its response to Radio Free Europe, the European Commission stressed that statements, including those related to potential changes to the river’s course, as well as any actions that do not support this objective, should be avoided.