Saakashvili: Georgia Wants Peace with Russia

President Saakashvili said on August 24 after talks with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig M?ller in Tbilisi, that Georgia ?does not want to be engaged in any kind of conflict with Russia.? Situation in breakaway South Ossetia topped the agenda during the talks between the Georgian President and Danish Foreign Minister.

?We know that Russia has its forces mobilized at the Roki pass [linking breakaway South Ossetia with Russia?s North Ossetian Republic]. But we want peace? withdrawal of [the Georgian] troops from the conflict zone prevented large-scale military confrontation,? Mikheil Saakashvili said at a news briefing on August 24.

Georgian MP Givi Targamadze, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security, accused Russia on August 24 over possible direct military intervention in the South Ossetian conflict and called on the Georgian army to be prepared for repelling Russia?s regular forces. ?We have a good example in Chechnya that it is quite possible to defeat the Russian army,? he added.

However, President Saakashvili called on the MPs not make ?parallels between Chechnya and Georgia.? ?We respect Russia?s territorial integrity and we hope that Russia will take the similar position regarding South Ossetia,? Mikheil Saakashvili added.

The western media reported on August 24 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili?s quotations from the interview published by the French newspaper Liberation, as saying, that Georgia is ?very close to a war? with Russia.