The President of the Atlantic Council in Serbia, Vladan Živulović, has said that Kosovo's request for NATO membership is unfeasible, claiming that prior admission to the UN is required for this.
Živulović made this claim in a statement to the Serbian news agency – Tanjug (here).
However, the claim made by this Serbian official turns out to be incorrect. Hibrid.info, through digital research, has managed to find the criteria that NATO presents for new memberships in this alliance. In none of these presented criteria does one of the ones that Živullović claims, namely being part of the UN, appear.
Part of the Tanjug article, translated into Albanian:
The President of the Atlantic Council in Serbia, Vladan Živulović, assessed today that Pristina's demands to receive a permanent US military base in Kosovo and NATO membership through an accelerated procedure are at least frivolous, primarily because it is an unrealized state that does not meet the basic condition, it is not a member of the UN.
This comment by Živollović was also broadcast by Serbian-language media from Serbia and Kosovo (see here and here).
A US State Department website presents the criteria for NATO membership for aspiring states. Among the five main criteria published on this website, none of them mentions the criterion of being a member state of the UN as a prerequisite for NATO membership (here).
Analyze:
The Serbian news agency – Tanjug – has published an article consisting of a statement by a Serbian official, which turns out to be untrue. This Serbian media outlet has published this statement as the only source for constructing the article, without confirming its authenticity. For this reason, hibrid.info calls the Tanjug article and Živollović's statement "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
A “Disinformation” rating is given to media reporting that contains a “mix” of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful content. This rating will also address reports that have incorrect attributions or headlines that do not reflect the text in terms of information accuracy.