SUKHUMI. Oct 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The leadership of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia does not rule out "a large-scale aggression on the part of Georgia," its vice president Valery Arshba told Interfax on Tuesday.
"We are no longer very concerned about the Chechen and Georgian rebels in the Kodori gorge, where Abkhazian army units are stamping out the remaining terrorists," he said.
However, he said large-scale aggression on the part of Georgia is possible. "The public statements of the official leaders of Georgia prove that. Now that the plans of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze to undermine stability in Abkhazia with the help of Chechen terrorists have failed, the Georgian head of state is looking for a pretext to unleash a new aggression," Arshba said.
"All Abkhazian formations have been brought to combat readiness," he said. "A decree on general mobilization has been drafted and the document is on the table of the Abkhazian president," he said.
He stressed that the effort to stamp out Chechen and Georgian rebels "involves only 10% of Abkhazian armed forces."
Arshba did not rule out preventive strikes by the Abkhazian army on Georgian territory. "We do not need foreign territory, but we do not intend to give our land to anyone," he said.
On the prospects of possible Georgian military operations against Abkhazia, he said: "Georgia is incapable of restoring control over Abkhazia by military means."