U.S. frustrating diplomatic dialogue
Russia's foreign ministry claims the U.S. and U.K. are resisting a Russian-French proposed resolution on South Ossetia at the UN's Security Council. Moscow and Paris are seeking to draw up a document including the six-point peace plan agreed by the confli
According to Russia's Foreign Ministry, the U.S. is doing all in its power to mispresent the document.
It says the United States is ignoring the need to start talks on the future status of Georgia's breakaway republics.
Joint Russia-NATO meeting called off
Russia has withdrawn its request for an emergency Russia-NATO meeting, according to Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin. The decision comes ahead of an emergency meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers on Tuesday, called by the United States.
Last Tuesday a planned emergency Russia-NATO meeting initiated by Russia was blocked by a no-show from the U.S.
On Monday, Rogozin was prevented from holding a news conference by the NATO press office, after it said all of its rooms were in use.
Rogozin believes the United States is reluctant to answer questions from Russia in the presence of their European partners.
“Today, there is a great temptation to question all our potential co-operation with NATO. Today, some hotheads have decided to assume the role of devil’s advocate. They want to show solidarity with Saakashvili to such an extent that it can cause grave damage to international and European security,” said Rogozin on Monday.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday that France is not going to change its position over Georgia joining NATO. France and Germany were against Georgia's accession at the Bucharest NATO summit.
Kouchner's comments came during a news conference on the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict in Paris. He also said he expects strength not threats from foreign ministers of NATO members who are meeting tomorrow.
OSCE stalemate
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has announced that no agreement has been reached on whether to send more monitors to South Ossetia.
There are currently 200 OSCE monitors in the region. Delegates at a meeting in Vienna were discussed sending one hundred more.
Russia said it supported the proposal in principle and claimed Georgia was blocking progress.
Talks will continue on Tuesday.
