Senior Georgian MP Threatens Tbilisi May Use Force in S.Ossetia

Influential Georgian MP Givi Targamadze, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security, said on September 4 that ?a forceful operation? has not been ruled out to solve the South Ossetian conflict.

?The Georgian Foreign Ministry has to undertake an enormous effort in the coming days and months to defrost the [South Ossetia peace] process. I want to say that this [South Ossetian] issue should be solved even if no appropriate [international] support is gained and, if necessary, should be resolved through forceful operations,? MP Givi Targamadze told Rustavi 2 television on September 4.

This is the first case of a high-level Georgian official publicly speaking of the possible use of force to solve the secessionist conflict. Targamadze is an MP from the ruling National Movement party with close links to Presidents Saakashvili and Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili.

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