Each of the conflicting party has a right to push for Russian peacekeepers withdrawal from the Abkhaz conflict zone, but final decision should be passed by the heads of CIS member countries, Sergey Shamba, the Foreign Minister of breakaway Abkhazia, told Apsnipress news agency on July 17.

The Georgian Parliament approved a resolution on July 18 instructing the government to launch relevant procedures in order to immediately suspend, as the document reads, the so-called peacekeeping operations in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In Abkhazia, Russian peacekeepers are stationed under the CIS aegis.
Sergey Shamba said that the current peacekeeping operation is part of the basic agreement between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides on cease-fire signed in 1994.

Exclusion of such an important component as it is peacekeeping forces will automatically lead to other changes as well. In particular, issues related with the peacekeepers are directly linked to the security issues, Shamba said and added that it is not ruled out that the Abkhaz side might withdraw from talks over return of Georgian internally displaced persons if peacekeepers leave.