Georgia, Tbilisi, 8 August / Trend corr. N.Kirtskhalia/ There is no alternative to the talks, Temur Yakobashvili, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration and President's authorized representative on conflict settlement, said to the Georgian journalists after his Tskhinvali visit in the evening of 7 August, where he met with the command of the Peacekeepers Joint Commission (PJC) for the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone.
"Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of the JPF agreed with this opinion, as well. We discussed the issues which may lead to de-escalation of the situation and avoidance of more victims," State Minister said.
He stressed that the situation in Tskhinvali was difficult and the streets were empty. "There are no people in the streets and it is an abnormal situation. The shooting should be stopped in order to enable people to live normally," Yakobashvili said.
The Georgian State Minister left for the conflict zone to negotiate overcoming of the crisis situation. Earlier, Yakobashvili was expected to meet with South Ossetian officials with Russia's mediation at the PJC's headquarter. However, Tskhinvali refused from the meeting, intending to negotiate only through the quadrilateral format of the Joint Supervision Commission.
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