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No Clarity over S.Ossetia Talks

Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said he had spoken to the chief Russian negotiator over South Ossetia and had received assurances that talks between the sides in the South Ossetia conflict would go ahead.

“I talked with Mr. Popov about 20 minutes ago and he told me that he would arrive in Tbilisi early on August 7 and then we would go together to Tskhinvali. Talks are planned to take place in the headquarters of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces [in Tskhinvali],” Iakobashvili told journalist at about 7:30pm local time on August 6.

Iakobashvili made the statement after the South Ossetian leader, Eduard Kokoity, and chief negotiator Boris Chochiev announced on August 6 that Tskhinvali would not take part in talks, proposing instead talks in the frames of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC). The JCC crucially also involves Russia’s North Ossetia, seen by Tbilisi as tipping the format in Tskhinvali’s favor. Tbilisi has, as a result, been boycotting the JCC for some time. Iakobashvili, however, made no comment on the latest South Ossetian call for JCC talks.

Iakobashvili told journalists that, even if the South Ossetian side refused to meet him, he was going to the conflict zone anyway. He said he was going to meet Dimitri Sanakoev, the head of the Tbilisi-backed South Ossetian provisional administration, whom Moscow and Tskhinvali denounce as Tbilisi’s “puppet.”

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