The United States has welcomed the decision by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's to withdraw his country's non-peacekeeping troops from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia and urged all parties to act with restraint as the withdrawal proceeds. South Ossetia is the latest Georgian region to oppose the government in Tbilisi. The region has been autonomous since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but Tbilisi has recently tried to reimpose control. "Georgia's ability to carry out its ambitious reform agenda depends on having peace and stability," the State Department said in a statement yesterday. "We call on the parties to the conflict … to capitalize on this positive momentum created by this troop withdrawal to establish an effective negotiating mechanism in pursuit of a political settlement that preserves South Ossentian autonomy within Georgia."
