NEW YORK, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - A group of seven countries on Monday formally submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution to extend the UN monitoring mission on the border between Georgia and Abkhazia.
The current mandate expires at midnight New York time [04:00 Tuesday GMT]. If the mandate is not extended, the mission must wind up its activities in the region. Russia and the other Security Council members continue to disagree on the wording of a resolution to extend the mission.
The project, co-authored by Austria, Croatia, Germany, France, Turkey, Britain and the United States, extends the mission until June 30, 2009. It cites the three most recent Security Council resolutions on the issue, including Resolution 1808, adopted on April 2008 and confirming Georgia's territorial integrity.
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized other members of the Security Council for their "politicized positions, which ignore the real interests of people in the Caucasus and jeopardize stability in the region," and urged its partners to review their stances.
At 18:00 Moscow time (14:00 GMT) the Security Council began consultations to decide on whether the resolution should be subject to a vote.
The UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone - still formally known as the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) - was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia after its five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Most residents of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia had held Russian citizenship for several years.
Russia's decision was condemned by the United States and the EU. Nicaragua has so far been the only other country to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
