Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
August 18, 2006 Friday
SAAKASHVILI WILL BE AN UNCONDITIONAL FRIEND
by Yuri Simonjan
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is invited to visit Tbilisi; Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili, known as a loyal satellite of the
United States and a supporter of everything American, has stunned the
international community by inviting Iranian President Ahmadinejad,
Washington’s number one opponent and ideological adversary, to visit
Tbilisi.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, known as a loyal satellite of
the United States and a supporter of everything American, has stunned
the international community by inviting Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Washington’s number one opponent and ideological
adversary, to visit Tbilisi.
Saakashvili delivered his invitation to Ahmadinejad via Iranian
Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari who was on a visit to the
Georgian capital on August 14-15. The visit was shrouded in a veil of
secrecy. Only some details of Safari’s meetings with Saakashvili,
Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, and Foreign Minister Gela
Bezhuashvili were revealed in a brief statement for the media. The
official authorities flatly refused to elaborate.
It is only known that Saakashvili thanked the Iranian diplomat for
help from Tehran that enabled Georgia to overcome the February fuel
crisis. In fact, the Iranian assistance was moral rather than
practical but Saakashvili certainly made a fuss of it. He even went
so far as to ask Safari to pass an invitation to Ahmadinejad to pay
an official visit to Georgia. This piece of news stirred the
political establishment because the Iranian president is on the black
list of Tbilisi’s principal benefactor US President George W. Bush.
(Ahmadinejad called for expulsion of the United States and Britain
from the UN Security Council and for bringing Bush and Tony Blair to
trial, the other day.)
Irakly Menagarishvili, Director of the Center of Strategic Studies
and ex-Foreign Minister of Georgia, admits that the invitation to
Ahmadinejad to visit Georgia may have a negative effect on Tbilisi’s
relations with the US Administration but says that there is no need
to be overly dramatic about it. "There is more to relations between
Georgia and Iran than contacts with the Iranian regime that has
challenged the West," Menagarishvili mused. "Georgia and Iran are
neighbors, with relations going back centuries. Saakashvili’s desire
to have stable economic relations with a neighbor is but rational and
logical."
Sources in Tbilisi point out that Ahmadinejad already paid a visit to
Baku and this never affected Azeri-American relations. The same
applies to Armenia and some Central Asian countries of the CIS that
have been advancing relations with Iran.
A source in Iranian diplomatic circles says that Ahmadinejad’s visit
to Tbilisi "is indeed a possibility." According to the diplomat, both
countries are interested in promoting economic contacts – Georgia
even more so because of its difficult relations with Russia that
cause it problems and leave it in need of alternative sources of
energy.
Politicians and observers in Tbilisi itself do not rule out the
possibility that Safari came to Tbilisi for guarantees that Georgian
airfields will not be used in an anti-Iranian military campaign, if
it ever came to that. Israeli media outlets reported with references
to official sources in Georgia earlier this year that air strikes at
Iran might be staged from Georgian airfields. Tbilisi categorically
denied this suggestion then.
Military expert Koba Liklikadze told us that even if an anti-Iranian
military coalition is formed, Georgia will not play any active or
significant role in it. "Our participation in this hypothetical
anti-Iranian alliance is not going to amount to anything more than
involvement in the anti-Iraqi alliance does," Liklikadze said.
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 18, 2006, p. 6
Translated by A. Ignatkin