S.Ossetian Talks Scheduled for August 7 – Official

Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said he would meet chief South Ossetian negotiator Boris Chochiev in Tskhinvali on August 7.

He said both sides had agreed that the meeting should be held in the presence of Yuri Popov, the chief Russian negotiator over South Ossetia.

Representative from Russia’s North Ossetian Republic will not be in attendance, Iakobashvili told journalist on August 5.

“It will not be a meeting in the framework of the Joint Control Commission; it will be bilateral talks in the presence of the Russian side,” he said.

Tbilisi is against holding talks in the framework of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC), which along with Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian negotiators also involves a representative from North Ossetia.