Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Women
Moscow has said that Russian forces will finally leave Georgian territory two weeks after tanks and troops poured in to support separatists in South Ossetia.
Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia's defence minister, said that the highly anticipated withdrawal would be "completed" on Friday, but the commander of Russian ground forces said it could take up to 10 days to pullout.
"As per the order of the supreme head of the armed forces, on Friday August 22 at 6:00 am local time [02:00 GMT], all Russian forces will begin their withdrawal from Georgian territory to South Ossetia," Serdyukov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"Over the course of August 22, the retreat of all these forces [in] Georgia will be completed."
The defence minister said that a contingent of Russian troops would stay "within the limits of the security zone" in a peacekeeping role. Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said that 500 Russian soldiers were to remain at eight checkpoints.
UN debate
The announcement came as the United Nations Security Council remained at odds over a draft resolution backing a European Union-sponsored ceasefire plan signed by both Russia and Georgia.
The United States, France and Britain have been insisting on an immediate withdrawal by Russian forces as well as a commitment from Moscow to respect Georgia's territorial integrity.
However, Russia has drafted a second alternative resolution which restates and endorses the six-point peace plan.
"Our draft resolution is a reconfirmation of the six-point agreement, and there's no territorial integrity in the six principles," Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, said after a council meeting on Thursday.
"We believe the six principles are clear and already implemented."
'Choke points'
Alejandro Wolff, US deputy ambassador to the UN, said that Washington would not be able to support the Moscow draft and questioned whether Russia was trying to "strangle" the Georgian government.
"We have a presence of so-called Russian peacekeeping forces at key Georgian choke points that will control economic life, it will control humanitarian activities ... That's why clarifications are so important."
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, France's deputy UN ambassador, said there were "encouraging signs of a beginning of a [Russian] withdrawal" from Georgia but added that much remains to be done for "the withdrawal to be consistent" with the ceasefire plan.
The ceasefire pact demands that both Russian and Georgian troops move back to positions they held before fighting broke out August 7, but Russian forces also can be in a security zone that extends 7km into Georgia from South Ossetia.
They are also allowed a presence on Georgian territory in a security zone along the border with Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian region, under a 1994 UN-approved agreement that ended a war there.
Co-operation ended
In another diplomatic development on Thursday, Russia told the Nato military alliance that it was suspending all co-operation, according to a spokeswoman for the alliance and Moscow's envoy to Nato.
Moscow has been angered by Nato accepting that Georgia coould join the alliance one day, and on Tuesday it was further riled when foreign ministers said future ties would depend on the Russian withdrawal.
However, the US played down the significane of the announcement.
"For all practical purposes, military-to-military co-operation had really already been ended with the Russians," Gordon Johndroe, US National Security Council spokesman, said."I can't imagine a circumstance right now that we would engage in military cooperation with the Russians until the situation in Georgia is resolved."
Nato and Russia began several co-operation projects under an agreement in 2002, including sharing expertise to combat heroin trafficking out of Afghanistan, developing battlefield anti-missile technology, joint exercises and help with rescue at sea.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Russian forces moved into South Ossetia on August 7[AFP]
Al-Jazeera
