Commenting on the problem of Kosovo, the diplomat told an international round table discussion in Belgrade on Wednesday evening that the issue should be settled without any more delays so that Kosovo be granted supervised independence.
He warned that potential conflict in Kosovo might spill over to Sandzak and also destabilise the situation in Vojvodina.
Making his remarks in the discussion at the Forum for International Relations of the European Movement in Serbia, the German ambassador also said that Serbia's insistence on Kosovo as part of its territory, bearing in mind it has been so only since 1912, could give Hungary reason to open the question of Vojvodina, the northern province with a large ethnic Hungarian minority.
After that the office of President Boris Tadic sent a strong protest note to the German Foreign Ministry insisting that German officially distance itself from the position of its ambassador in Belgrade.
The German embassy issued a statement saying that the quotes had been taken wholly out of context from Zoebel's overall discourse on the dangers of evoking "historical rights and parallels".
Zoebel also held a brief news conference in Belgrade today when he said that he "expressed his personal opinion and not the position of the German Government and the European Union."
I explicitly apologise for statements that gave others reason to think that I have no understanding for the country hosting me, the diplomat said.