The Tbilisi-based Israeli ambassador on Monday expressed his disappointment over Georgia's decision to support the United Nations General Assembly's grant of an observer statehood to Palestine.

Yuval Fuchs told a press briefing after having met government officials that he had been surprised and disappointed by the decision.

But the Israeli ambassador said that the decision would not affect bilateral relations between his country and the South Caucasus country.

"My mission here is to work on bilateral relations," said the diplomat, "to improve relations between Georgia and Israel. I have been doing this much before and I will keep making all the efforts that I can in order to improve relations in all fields, in business, in culture and of course, in all political fields."

The UN General Assembly has voted 138-9, with 41 abstentions, to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state, a move strongly opposed by the United States and Israel.

"We don't think that this (UN) resolution will create any change on the ground," the ambassador said.

"There is no state or statehood which is created by such resolution. Israel has shown and proved many times in the past that we are ready for negotiations for peace. We have reached peace accords with our neighbors, Egypt and Jordan. All these achievements were reached by bilateral and direct negotiations." Endi

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