“If you go to Washington at the lowest level and make general toasts saying we need to restore relations, but with the other hand you engage in direct anti-American and pro-Ayatollah propaganda inside your own country, how can you achieve any meaningful progress for the country?” — this was stated by one of the leaders of the party “Federalists,” Giga Bokeria, during an appearance on PalitraNews's program “360 Degrees” while discussing the parliamentary delegation's visit to the United States.

According to Bokeria, relations between the USA and Georgia have not changed, and speculation on this topic is unfounded.

“If you look at the propaganda of the last few days, they are conducting direct anti-American propaganda, against President Trump, and along exactly the same line — condemning attacks on Iran.

We need a government that presents Georgia as a key space and a country whose defense, security, and statehood are morally worth protecting and pragmatically in the West's interests. The current authorities, which have a problem even restoring relations, do not have this capability — even if they make some slight progress in something, which so far has not happened. And meanwhile, if you go to Washington at the lowest level, make general toasts saying let's restore relations, but with the other hand you continue direct anti-American and pro-Ayatollah propaganda inside the country — if relations with America have been ruined because of these steps, you go there and make toasts saying let's restore relations, but you keep doing this — how can you achieve any meaningful progress for the country?

At this stage, there are no prerequisites whatsoever; based on what we know publicly, nothing has changed, and all this speculation is baseless,” — stated Bokeria.

The opposition politician also spoke about the ongoing military actions in the Middle East and their threats to the South Caucasus. When asked whether “Georgian Dream” could have any guarantee that the current Iranian regime would not harm strategic objects located on Georgia's territory, Bokeria replied: “Not only do they have no guarantee — this threat is real.”

“Iran is the kind of tyrannical regime that, in the situation it has found itself in as a result of its own actions, what step it will take next is impossible to predict. This threat is real, and Azerbaijan's example proves it. What is the conclusion from Azerbaijan's case? Azerbaijan's authorities tried to make diplomatic gestures, sent condolences, did not allow their territory to be used for military operations, and are not in any direct military alliance with either the United States or Israel. The conclusion is that in this situation we need defense capability. Instead, because of the Ivanishvili regime, we are lagging far behind everyone else in the entire region — they have deprived us of defense resources and are deceiving Georgian society that with these shameful gestures — by which they have alienated us from the free world and left us without allies — this can somehow save us from a regime like Iran's. Azerbaijan's example shows that this is not the case. Azerbaijan has both allies in the region and defense capability. We have neither the one nor the other,” — stated Bokeria.