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UNITED NATIONS-Georgia said on Friday it had stopped spy plane flights over breakaway Abkhazia as Western nations prepared a diplomatic drive to calm tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow that have raised fears of war.But Georgian U.N. Ambassador Irakli Alasania warned after addressing a Security Council meeting on the crisis that his country reserved its right to resume flights by pilotless drones if it saw a threat from Russian-backed Abkhazia.A Georgian drone was shot down over Abkhazia on April 20 by what a U.N. report said on Monday was a Russian fighter.Moscow has denied involvement.The report also said the Georgian reconnaissance flight violated a 1994 cease-fire agreement between Georgia and Abkhazia, a region on the Black Sea that is smaller than Cyprus and has fewer than 200,000 people.The conflict has sparked friction between Russia and the West, which supports Georgia's ambition to join NATO. The instability in the South Caucasus has also worried the West because the region is seen as a vital part of an energy corridor between Caspian Sea oil fields and world markets."I openly said that since the (U.N.) report was issued, (the) Georgian side stopped overflights," Alasania told reporters. "It doesn't mean that we will not use these military capabilities if the threat will occur in the region."Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was "quite encouraged" by the Georgian halt to overflights, although he regretted the warning of a possible resumption-something he said Alasania had not mentioned at the council meeting.In the closed-door session, Churkin said he had called on Georgia "to stop its policy of provocation," pull back forces from the border with Abkhazia and sign an accord with the rebel region on abstention from force and return of refugees.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
