18/08/2008 21:15 MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) – The United States and Britain are hindering work on a UN Security Council resolution on South Ossetia, whitewashing Georgia’s role and ignoring the need for talks on the status of its breakaway republics, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.
“This work is being obstructed by the U.S. and Britain, which are trying to distort the content of a peace plan a posteriori and present the situation as if the aggressive act committed by Georgia against South Ossetia on August 8 did not affect the situation in the region, and which are ignoring the acute need to consider the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” the ministry said.
Georgia launched a major ground and air offensive to regain control of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia on August 8, prompting Russia to send tanks and thousands of troops to the region. Russia concluded its operation “to force Georgia to accept peace” on August 12.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the French-brokered peace plan in Moscow on Saturday, the day after his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili signed it in Tbilisi.
The plan, worked out at an August 12 meeting between Medvedev and Sarkozy, contains six principles for the resolution of the South Ossetian conflict.
These are: renouncing the use of force; halting all military action; providing free access to humanitarian aid; the return of Georgian Armed Forces to their bases; the pullback of Russian Armed Forces to their positions prior to combat; and the start of international discussions on the future status of Georgia’s two separatists republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and ways to ensure their security.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave Georgia her country’s backing at a news conference last Wednesday, saying: “As to choosing, the United States has made very clear that it is standing by the democratically elected government of Georgia.”
The original source of this article is RIA Novosti
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