U.S. urges Macedonia to end political crisis, form new government

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

SKOPJE (Reuters) - The United States urged Macedonian leaders on Monday to end a political stalemate and allow the parliamentary majority made up of Social Democrats and parties representing ethnic Albanians to form a new government.

Nearly five months after a Dec. 11 parliamentary election, Macedonian nationalists unhappy about the inclusion of ethnic Albanians are blocking the formation of a new government, further deepening the worst crisis in the tiny Balkan country since it narrowly averted an ethnic civil war in 2001.