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Georgia to meet South Ossetia rebels for landmark talks: official
by Irakli Metreveli Tue Aug 5, 6:04 PM ET
TBILISI (AFP) - Georgian and South Ossetian officials have agreed to hold direct talks for the first time in a decade this week amid mounting tensions in the rebel region, a Georgian official said Tuesday.
South Ossetia's rebel government denied agreeing to the talks in a statement on its website, but south padre island tx a senior Russian official confirmed the discussions were to take place on Thursday.
Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili told AFP he would meet on August 7 with senior South Ossetian officials in the samuel bowman shelton south carolina rebel capital Tskhinvali.
He said the landmark talks, the first direct bilateral contact between the two sides for at least a decade, black doctors in south carolina "could mark a breakthrough in south park resolving the conflict."
Russia's negotiator on South Ossetia, ambassador-at-large Yury Popov, also told the ITAR-TASS news agency that the talks would take place, adding that Russia would take part.
"We hope the sides will manage to find compromise decisions that will promote the removal of tensions in the south fayette school in pennsylvania region," he was quoted as saying.
Georgia's foreign ministry also said Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze would meet Russian counterpart Grigory Karasin in Moscow later this south sound cinnama six week to discuss the situation in seed drought tolerant south west desert South Ossetia.
The reports came after Moscow warned it would defend Russian citizens living in South Ossetia, Russian media said.
"If events develop in the worst possible way, with the use of force, Russia will not be able to stand by, seeing as Russian citizens live in South Ossetia," Popov was quoted by media as saying.
South Ossetia has evacuated south wellington hundreds of women and children to Russia over the past few days after six people were killed on Friday high grade beverage south brunswick nj by sniper and mortar fire from Georgian positions, the rebel province's government said.
Georgian south lyon duplex Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze on Tuesday denied rebel claims of a Georgian military build-up near South Ossetia and that Georgian forces had been the first to fire on rebel positions.
"If we use force, it is only mds south dakota in cases where it is absolutely necessary to defend the lives of law-enforcement officers," she told journalists during a visit with European diplomats to Georgian-controlled areas of South Ossetia.
"We are not preparing for war," she said. "There is no significant build-up."
The diplomats were shown a series of homes and police checkpoints that Georgia alleges elica south dakota came under grenade and mortar fire from South Ossetia over the weekend. Zguladze said six civilians and nine police were injured in the attacks.
Local residents said the fighting had been the worst for years.
"Intense shooting continued for hours," said Omar Champuridze, 64, who received minor injuries when his home in the village of Zemo Nikozi was struck by a shell.
He accused Russia of fanning tensions in the region, saying "neither the Ossetian nor the Georgian people want war, but someone is trying south miami hospital to provoke a conflict."
The United States urged Moscow to avoid provocation in the region.
"We don't believe that now is the time for any parties to be acting in a provocative way," said the fields resturaunt in south florida State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos.
"We believe that the violence should stop and all parties should begin a discussion so that they can move forward towards settling the situation."
South Ossetia broke away from the rest of Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 in a conflict that killed thousands of people.
Russia has given the separatist province diplomatic and economic support, including granting citizenship to most of its residents.
Tensions between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, have soared in recent months since Moscow announced it was boosting ties with the separatists.
Georgia accuses Moscow of seeking to annex the two regions and derail its efforts to join the NATO military alliance, which Russia vehemently opposes.
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