US: Russia's actions in Georgia could harm U.S ties
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The White House on Sunday deplored Russia's military action in the Georgia conflict as "dangerous and disproportionate" and warned it could have a "significant long-term impact" on relations between Washington and Moscow.
"We're alarmed by this situation," James Jeffrey, U.S. President George W. Bush's deputy national security adviser, told reporters in Beijing where the president was attending the Olympics, referring to reports of a Russian naval blockade.
He said the United States had made it clear to the Russians that their continued escalation in the conflict with Georgia over its breakaway South Ossetia province could seriously harm U.S.-Russia ties.
Jeffrey also said the United States would be "very, very concerned" if reports of Russian ground attacks in Georgia, a U.S. ally, were accurate.
The Georgian interior ministry said earlier its forces had withdrawn from South Ossetia, where they had been fighting Russian troops for control. But the Russian army said Georgian forces were still there.
The announcement of a pullout followed three days of fighting in a Georgian push to take control of the pro-Moscow enclave from separatists, which prompted Russia to pour troops into South Ossetia and launch air strikes inside Georgia.
Russia sent in troops after the Georgian assault on Friday, dramatically upping the stakes in a long-running stand-off with the ex-Soviet republic over its pro-Western policies and its drive for NATO membership.
Russia bombed a military airfield outside the Georgian capital early on Sunday and Tbilisi said the Russians were also massing troops in Abkhazia on the Black Sea, another rebel region that broke with Tbilisi in the early 1990s after a war.
Russian warships arrived at Georgia's Black Sea coast, RIA news agency quoted a Russian navy source as saying. The source said the aim was to stop weapons arriving by sea.