The Georgian Foreign Ministry and President Saakashvili should clarify the latter’s remarks vis-a-vis a border agreement with Azerbaijan, opposition lawmaker from the Conservative Party Zviad Dzidziguri said on May 14.

President Saakashvili said on May 12, after talks with his visiting Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, that the two countries would soon reach an agreement on the disputed border section of Davit Gareji, a complex of cave monasteries.

“Joint working groups will meet soon… Strategic heights should remain under Azerbaijani control, while the complex of monasteries has to remain on Georgian territory… I am sure we will be able to sign [a border delimitation] agreement very soon,” Saakashvili told reporters.

But Dzidziguri said at a news conference on May 14 that it was impossible to separate “strategic heights” from the monasteries complex.   
 
“It is impossible because part of the monastery is located on those very same strategic heights. It is impossible to consider the monastery and the strategic heights separately,” Dzidziguri said.