Another U.S. Ally Gets in Bed With Iran

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The Republic of Georgia lost 20 percent of its territory in 2008 to Russian invasion, and continues to struggle politically and economically from Russian interference in its domestic affairs.

The ruling Georgia Dream party, dominated by pro-Russian oligarch Bidzia (“Boris”) Ivanishvili, won parliamentary elections last October that the opposition declared were rigged. Since April 19, a new power sharing agreement hammered out by the European Union and the United States, seems have convinced the opposition to rejoin the parliament.

But Georgia’s northern neighbor and election irregularities are only part of the former Soviet republic’s problems. It also sits atop a key pipeline that transports oil from Baku, Azerbaijan, through Georgia to Turkey and Western Europe.

The Iranian regime has long sought to block the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, since it rivaled Iran’s own oil and gas exports to Turkey. Because of this, and because of a succession of weak governments in Georgia, the Iranians have established a powerful commercial and intelligence base inside Georgia that has influenced policies and infiltrated the Georgian security and judicial establishments.

Iran’s infiltration of Georgia and manipulation of Georgian state policy led the U.S. Department of Treasury to expose a network of Iranian sanctions-busting traders based in Tbilisi in 2014. As part of the 2015 Iran deal, U.S. sanctions against them were then lifted. By all accounts they continue to operate in Georgia today with the blessing of Georgian politicians and local banks.

The State Security Service has also established robust ties to its Iranian counterpart, the Ministry of Information and Security.

Under the control of then interior minister GeorgiGakharia, SSS-men raided an Iranian restaurant in Tbilisi in February 2018 and arrested its owner, claiming he was engaged in a dastardly plot to hire an assassin to murder other Iranians in Tbilisi.

The man they arrested, Alireza Soleimane-pak, also known as Hamid Reza Zakeri, was a defector from Iranian intelligence who became a witness in the 9/11 court case against the Iranian regime that ultimately led to a damage award in favor of the victims of over $16 billion. He was also a UN-registered political refugee.

I was involved in the 9/11 case, and have interviewed Mr. Soleimane-pak on many occasions over the past 18 years.Since learning of his arrest, I have traveled to Tbilisi twice to attend court hearings. 

The Republic of Georgia’s courts have struggled since the 2003 Rose Revolution to separate themselves from political interference. 

Nowhere was that failure more apparent than in the February 2021 court order to jail opposition leader NikaMelia, whose arrest became a cause célèbre in Georgia and compelled the government of President Zourbichvili to send the leader of the pro-Russian “Georgia Dream” party to Washington in April to shore up political support.

But Melia’s case is not alone. MORE