Georgian PM calls claims of Iran sanctions circumvention “ordinary betrayal”

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday said that claims that Georgia was being used to circumvent sanctions on Iran amounted to “ordinary betrayal”, stressing that the country’s exports to Iran accounted for 0.5 percent of total exports while imports accounted for 1.5 percent.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze emphasised there were forces, the so-called deep state, that do not want developments in Georgia to move in the right direction.

“When there was talk about circumventing sanctions, I wanted to remind everyone that the import and export figures with Iran were as follows: our exports account for 0.5 percent of total exports and imports account for 1.5 percent. . In such a situation, when someone claims that Georgia is being used to bypass Iranian sanctions, this is outright betrayal. There is nothing else you can call it. All messages presented in that report are entirely based on falsehoods”, he said.

“This is ordinary betrayal. The interest behind it is to fulfill an assignment, to carry out a commission. There are forces of the so-called deep state that do not want events in Georgia to develop in the right direction. They want to create different trends through these falsehoods. We will not allow anyone to do that”, Kobakhidze concluded.

Georgia’s opposition figure Giorgi Kandelaki has come under criticism after citing unverified claims in support of a controversial article published by The Washington Free Beacon, which described Tbilisi as a “fertile ground” for Iranian recruitment and terrorist operations.

The article, written by journalist Adam Kredo, relied on statements from several critics of the Georgian government, including US Congressman Joe Wilson, analyst Luke Coffey, and Kandelaki himself.