TSKHINVALI. Dec 22 (Interfax-AVN) - A session of the Mixed Control Commission for settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian armed conflict that was due in Tskhinvali last weekend has been cancelled.
"At the last moment, Tbilisi refused to take part in the session of the Mixed Control Commission that was due in Tskhinvali last weekend, motivating it by the change of the commission co-chairman on behalf of Georgia," South Ossetian Minister without Portfolio, who chairs the commission on behalf of his republic, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
"The refusal from Tbilisi came when Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Lange Mikhail Mayorov, another co-chairman of the Mixed Control Commission, had already arrived from Moscow to attend the session," he said.
Chochiyev stressed that "the session was supposed to address such urgent and important issues as implementation of the EU project of providing an EUR2.5m grant for rehabilitation of the conflict zone and cooperation between law-enforcement agencies of the parties."
"South Ossetian leaders confirm readiness to take part in the work of the Mixed Control Commission, but draws the attention of Russian and OSCE mediators to the Georgian party's behavior," he said.
According to him, it is not yet clear who will succeed Irakly Machavariani as co-chairman of the commission on behalf of Georgia.
"Earlier reports said that Minister without Portfolio Malkhaz Kakabadze will become co-chairman of the Mixed Control Commission, but today's Georgian press reports argue that chief of Kakabadze's administration Lali Moroshkina may be appointed to this position," Chochiyev said.
The new co-chairman should be announced as soon as possible in order not to slow down the negotiating process, he noted.
"The session of the Mixed Control Commission will apparently be held only after the presidential elections in Georgia scheduled for January 4," Chochiyev concluded