Alarm at Georgian Shift Towards Iran

Tbilisi's increasing friendliness with Iran is making commentators in Georgia concerned that this new foreign policy line risks alienating more important allies in the West.

Georgia is considering simplifying visa procedures for Iranian nationals, and President Mikhail Saakashvili has confirmed that he has invited his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Tbilisi.

Iran has been at odds with Washington and European states for years over its enrichment of uranium – which western powers say is cover for developing a nuclear bomb. The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on June 9, banning sales of heavy weaponry to Tehran.

Turkey voted against the measures, and has pushed its own plan to exchange of low-grade Iranian uranium for highly-enriched Turkish fuel. The proposal has been rejected by Washington, but supported by Georgia’s Saakashvili.

“It is a true diplomatic breakthrough and a big diplomatic victory for Iran, Europe, America, for the world and the whole region, for Turkey and thus also for Georgia,” Saakashvili said on May 17 at a meeting in Batumi with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Since Saakashvili came to power in a bloodless revolution in 2003, his principal foreign policy has been to align Georgia with the United States. In that light, the position he is taking on Iran – announced shortly after a visit to the US – looks surprising.

Political analysts in the country are offering two mutually exclusive explanations of the move.

“Although Saakashvili waited for a long time in the United States, he did not have a high-level meeting with western leaders. The US declined to legitimise his not-very-democratic regime,” said Gela Bandzeladze, an expert in international relations at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. “The Georgian authorities responded to this with an opportunistic message that they would draw closer to Iran.”

Nika Chitadze, head of the International and Security Research Centre, said the history of Iranian-Georgian relations was more complex than that, and traced it back to 2006, when Saakashvili met Ahmadinejad without this harming relations with Washington.

“Georgia, like Turkey, could act as an intermediary in relations between the United States and Iran,” he said.

These two views reflect the positions taken by government and opposition, respectively.

The Georgian authorities are clearly concerned about the impact of their Iran policy, so the foreign ministry held a special briefing for journalists to explain that the relationship was primarily economic, and was not a deviation from the government's pro-western strategic line.

“We have very good relations [with Iran] on political matters, but we think we need to enhance cooperation in the economic sphere, particularly on energy and agriculture,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze.

However, Davit Usufashvili, leader of the opposition Republican Party, said Georgia could never act as intermediary with Iran since it had lost the trust of western countries.

“We are reaping the fruits of domestic policies pursued in Georgia since the Rose Revolution, which have steadily distanced us from western democracy. No one needs an undemocratic regime as intermediary,” he said. “This flirting with Iran is a destructive step for the country, leading the government into a dead-end which will be rejected by our partners.”

Bandzeladze dismissed the idea that improved economic relations with Tehran could outweigh the political fall-out.

“It is impossible to imagine that any country could simultaneously simplify visa procedures for both Europe and Iran. These moves by the Georgian authorities are just adventurism and blackmail; they have nothing to do with the development of economic relations. The political effects will create far more difficulties for this country than any economic advantage, and sadly, we will sense this very soon,” he said.

Officials deny the policy has caused any breakdown in ties with the West.

“Our opponents have long… insisted that we repair relations with Russia, and have criticised us for not taking steps in that direction. And now they’re against relations with Iran, which has not attacked us or seized our land,” said Davit Darchiashvili, chairman of the parliamentary committee for European integration.

“Iran is our neighbour and an important player in world politics, and our own country is fighting for survival and needs to become more active. But that in no way means that we’re closing our eyes to the red lines that the US and European Union have drawn with regard to Iran.”

The emerging relationship is expected to take a step forward at the end of June, when Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki visits Georgia. The Georgian government is hoping other senior Iranian figures will follow in his footsteps.

Natia Kuprashvili is a freelance journalist in Tbilisi.