MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Any military action in the Kodori Gorge will be a violation of all bilateral agreements restricting the use of arms in the region, Abkhazian Vice President Raul Khajimba said.
"A special police operation in the Kodori Gorge will be a violation of all agreements between Abkhazia and Georgia aimed at a peaceful settlement," the vice-president told Interfax.
Over the weekend, the Georgian president's former envoy in the Kodori Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia under Georgian control, Emzar Kvitsiani said that he no longer obeys the central authorities, adding that several hundred armed people who support him are staying in the gorge, and they are ready to resist the Georgian authorities, should they be required to do so.
Abkhazia has not maintained close contacts with Kvitsiani, Khajimba said.
"However, should Georgia proceed with military action in the Kodori Gorge, our reaction will be adequate, in order to prevent an escalation in the situation in Abkhazia, as Tbilisi may wish for," Khajimba said.