After meeting in Ergneti, South Ossetia refuses to open Georgian border

Georgia has refused to remove the block-post erected near the village of Tsnelis, but demanded from South Ossetia to open the border for the passage of residents of the pre-border regions, Irakli Antadze, the spokesman of the Georgian State Security Service (SSS), has stated. The South-Ossetian party will take steps to relieve tensions, if Georgia makes concessions, said Yegor Kochiev, the head of the South-Ossetian delegation.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the South-Ossetian Parliament had treated the erection by Georgian militaries of the above block-post near the village of Tsnelis as a blatant act of aggression and border violation by Georgia.

On September 13, the parties discussed the border situation near Tsnelis at a meeting in Ergneti within the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms, the "InterPressNews" reports.

Irakli Antadze, Deputy Director of the SSS' Analytical Department, said that the issue of opening the border by South Ossetia was raised at the meeting. "Unfortunately, their position on this item is also not constructive," Mr Antadze stated.

Georgia refuses to remove the block-post, arguing that it does not threaten anyone and there are a limited number of policemen there, the RES Agency reports with reference to Yegor Kochiev, the head of the South-Ossetian delegation.

"The removal of the Georgian police block-post and the withdrawal of Georgian armed forces from the vicinity of Tsnelis, the territory of South Ossetia ... would solve the existing problem," Mr Kochiev has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 14, 2019 at 04:22 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.