Albanian PM, Pandeli Majko told a news conference that Albania is ready to pay the peace price in the region, which is being kept hostage for a long time by the regime of Milosevic. "Today the history of the Albanian nation has changed. Today, NATO forces have started air strikes on Serbian military positions. The failure of the efforts of the international community to convince the Belgrade regime to find a peaceful settlement to the crisis in Kosove, the continuous unprecedented genocide on the civil and unprotected population of Kosove have made Serb military facilities become targets for the NATO air strikes. The Albanian Government hails this military drive of NATO, proceeding from the fact that no political means have been spared to find a solution of the crisis in Kosove and to halt the Serb repression. We hail the governments of all those friendly countries, especially the U.S. Government and President Bill Clinton, for not hesitating to intervene in the conflict and to stop it. We will offer all fa

cilities that this operation be conducted conformed to the Alliance plans to hit the Serbian military arsenal. The Albanian Government hails, once more, that group of Kosovar Albanian negotiators who with the signing of the Provisional Accord for Peace and Self-determination in Kosove in Paris, ranked the Albanian people on the same front with that part of the international community which manifested the necessary resolve to punish the culprits. The Albanian Government hails the fighters of the Kosove Liberation Army, who through their heroic self-defence in face of the Serb war machine, in defence of the nation, joined the international efforts for the solution of the crisis in Kosove. The Albanian Government is following attentively the development of the situation in the region and is prepared for any scenario. It seems that the real price of the peace in the Balkan is war and we, together with our strategic allies, are ready to pay it and to face any adventure that Belgrade may undertake against the sove

reignty of the Republic of Albania. Today I had a telephone talk with the U.S. Secretary of State Albright, and discussed the situation created following the NATO air strikes on Serb military targets. She assured me and I want to transmit this assurance to you too, that "infringement of the sovereignty of Albania by Milosevic will meet with the resolute response from the U.S." The same message is conveyed in the letter I have received by NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, that any threat to the territorial integrity, political independence and security of our country is unacceptable for the Alliance and that it will consider with the greatest seriousness any attack from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia against our country. The Albanian Government reckons that in these decisive moments for the present and the future of the nation, the stability of the Republic of Albania is of a decisive importance. The Albanian Government has guaranteed all necessary measures to safeguard this stability