The below article was published by Ansa:

Rome - Kosovo's deputy foreign minister visited the Italian capital on Tuesday as part of a bid for support from the Holy See and Italy for his country's membership in the United Nations' scientific and cultural organization.

''The United States, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy are on our side in the battle that we have been fighting for months to become part of UNESCO. The struggle will be hard, but we will succeed,'' Minister Petrit Selimi said, a few days prior to the meeting at which the UN body will decide whether to include the candidature of the small Balkan nation on the agenda to be voted on at a plenary session in November. ''On September 11,'' Selimi told ANSA, ''we will know whether our candidature will be on the agenda of the Executive Council.'' At this phase, ''only 29 out of 58 votes are needed'', he noted. Though in appearance simply a technicality, Pristina is fighting hard against Serbia's opposition to its candidature.

Once in the General Assembly, ''at least two-thirds of 195 votes will be required.'' If it does not receive the votes, the matter will be discussed again in 2017. For months the Pristina government has been putting forth diplomatic efforts for the goal, but even Italy may not give its vote to placing its candidature on the agenda, obliging it to vote openly on the matter. ''I have no reason,'' Selimi said, ''to think that Rome will not vote in our favor. I expect the exact opposite.'' ''It is the first time that we find ourselves requesting admittance into an organization in which the United States do not vote in the assembly. They cannot vote since they are behind on their membership payments'' to the organization. The minister will be meeting on Tuesday afternoon with Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, undersecretary of the Secretary of State section that deals with foreign affairs, and delegates from the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the Pontifical Council for Culture. Support from the Holy See for the request to take part in the organization - despite the fact that the country has not yet been recognized - would be enormously important. ''The best way to protect our Christian heritage in Kosovo is to become UNESCO members,'' Selimi said. ''Recognition will come in due time from the Holy See. We live in a world where everyone is in a hurry.'' In the Vatican, he added, ''time moves at a different speed.

It is not a matter of 'whether' recognition will come from the Vatican, but of 'when'.''

Photo Courtesy of Eric Korenblik@flickr