From the start of the operation in Aračinovo, NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson described the Macedonian assault on NLA held Aračinovo as "madness" and "complete folly". In a strongly-worded statement, Lord Robertson urged the government to cease hostilities as Macedonia, he warned, was "on the brink of bloody civil war".[79][80] According to General Pande Petrovski, who was in charge of the operation, on 25 June at 9:00 in the morning he was called by the president and was told that NATO general secretary called him personally telling him to halt the operation because there are Americans trapped in Aračinovo. Petrovski however ordered the operation to continue. In 12:45 the president telephoned general Petrovski again with the words:
"General I want until 13:00 all of your activities in Aračinovo to be halted, and you will go to hotel "Belvi" to meet with NATO envoys. Don't you dare use the aviation, don't play games, I already explained what's the matter!" (page 110)
Petrovski orders the halting of military activities of the security forces and heads towards hotel "Belvi" where he encounters TV crews, foreign diplomats, government representatives and representatives of the president's cabinet. He is informed that everyone is awaiting the arrival of Xavier Solana at 16:00. In his memoirs on page 111 Petrovski then states that:
"Brigadier general Zvonko Stojanovski the commander of the Army Anti-air Defence informed me that our radars caught 6 fighter planes with course from Italy, through Albania towards Macedonia. i told him to follow their course and to dislocate the helicopters to the reserve airfield in Lozovo. I then though to myself – this is it! NATO is ready to use force on us if we continue with the operation". (page 111)
Petrovski's description of the circumstances was confirmed by Glenn Nye, who was a state department official in the Embassy of the USA in Macedonia. During the 2002 congressional elections in the USA, Nye revealed that while assigned to Macedonia and Kosovo, in 2001 he organised the rescue of 26 American citizens who were trapped behind insurgent lines.[81][82][83][84] For this, Nye received the State Department's Superior Honor Award.[81]
According to researchers Mark Curtis and Scott Taylor the foreigners that were evacuated from Aračinovo by NATO forces were advisors from the American military company MPRI
During the meeting held the same day in hotel "Belvi", the EU's senior foreign policy official, Javier Solana put great pressure on the government to completely stop the military activities in Aračinovo, and to let the NLA insurgents leave the incircled village.[86] After talks between president Boris Trajkovski and EU's senior foreign policy official, Javier Solana, the Macedonian government officially announced that it has ended its offensive against the NLA in Aračinovo. According to western media reports the talks were apparently "extremely acrimonious", with the Macedonians reluctant to abandon the battle they were convinced they were going to win.[87][88]
Solana asked the Macedonian officials to allow the evacuation of the NLA insurgents from Aračinovo to Lipkovo, and that the evacuation be conducted the same day. During the evacuation the insurgents would carry with them their weapons, their dead and their wounded.[86] Being exposed to great pressure by the international community, government officials allowed the NLA insurgents to be evacuated from Aračinovo to Lipkovo. The details with the logistics of the evacuation was organised by the USA special envoy for the Balkans, Peter Feith.[89] The evacuation started at 17:00 and was conducted by U.S. Marines from the American contingent within KFOR in Kosovo.[68]