In an apparent attempt to pave the way for State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili to participate in talks with representatives of the breakaway regions, he was given the status of special envoy of the Georgian president for conflict resolution issues.

In January 2008, when the State Ministry for Conflict Resolution Issues was renamed as the State Ministry for Reintegration, the new name angered both Sokhumi and Tskhinvali, both saying that they would not engage in talks with the Georgian state minister in charge of “reintegration.”

Last week the authorities in breakaway South Ossetia cited Iakobashvili's participation in planned talks in Brussels as one of the reason behind their refusal to take part in the meeting. Iakobashvili said that was just a pretext, but also added that the Georgian side planned to “remove” that pretext.