The ministry expressed concern over the increasing number of Georgian provocations in the zone of Georgian-Ossetian conflict, including today's "terrorist attacks" in Tskhinvali, the capital of the self-proclaimed republic in Georgia.
A Russian diplomat said earlier that a Russian delegation had been stopped after entering South Ossetia by the Georgian military police, 16 miles from Tskhinvali.
Yury Popov, Russia's special envoy in Georgia, said a car with a group of Russian diplomats and peacekeepers, headed for the capital of the self-proclaimed republic to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the region, was stopped by three cars with at least 20 military policemen, allegedly for a document inspection.
But Georgia said Friday the delegation had been barred entry to Tskhinvali for personal safety reasons.
"They [the delegation] were not detained, as the Russian media reported, but simply stopped for the sake of their personal safety," Georgia's State Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava said.
"Georgian police securing the entrance to the conflict zone did not let them through because a terrorist attack occurred in Tskhinvali this morning," he said.
The Russian embassy in Tbilisi said that having been stopped, the delegation was now on its way back to the Georgian capital.
Following reports that one person had been killed and four wounded in an explosion Friday morning near the house of a local parliamentarian Tskhinvali, Russia's special envoy in Georgia said that increased tensions in the region called for an emergency meeting of the commission.
Yury Popov, who is also a co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission seeking to resolve the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, said: "It is obvious that a scheduled meeting of the JCC in Tbilisi will not take place on July 17-18. But we will probably have to convene for an extraordinary meeting in Moscow because the situation is urgent."
