Georgian Ex-premier urges direct negotiations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Georgia should forget the term 'retrieval of territories' in respect
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and start direct negotiations with these
republics, said Georgian ex-prime minister and leader of the
opposition movement "For a Fair Georgia" Zurab Nogaideli on "Echo of
Moscow" radio station, reports RIA Novosti.
"We should forget the term 'retrieval of territories', we should speak
about reunion with the people of these territories and the reunion of
all of Georgia. First we should bring back Ossetians and Abkhaz people
and restore relations with them. And I think that talks should be held
in the near future between Tbilisi and Sukhumi as well as Tbilisi and
Tshinval", he said.
He noted that the main issue of the negotiations should be guarantees
of peace and exclusion of war.
"First and foremost, Georgia itself needs these guarantees, since it
has badly suffered as a result of war and now is split in separate
parts", he added.
The second step should be reconstruction and reopening of transport
links and economic cooperation with the separatist states.
The discussion of the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be
postponed "until mutual trust is fully restored". At the same time, he
pointed out that he and his party would never give up the idea of a
United Georgia.