Georgian Minister: Ossetian Side Agrees on Restoration of Railway

Goga Khaindrava, the Georgian State Minister who is in charge of conflict resolution, after talks with the Ossetian side in Tskhinvali on June 2, said that the the de facto authorities of South Ossetia agreed on restoration of the railway link between the self-styled region?s capital Tskhinvali and the rest of Georgia.
 
Chief of the state-run Georgian Railway company, David Onoprishvili, and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania intend to visit Tskhinvali on June 3 to discuss the details of the restoration of the railway link. 

Goga Khaindrava also told reporters that the Ossetian side accepted Tbilisi?s proposal to begin distributing pensions, to be paid from the state budget, to people in the breakaway region.
 
Scheduled peace talks between the two sides, which included representatives from Russia and from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), were originally planned for June 1 in Tbilisi; however, the Ossetian side refused to travel to the Georgian capital.