Sending Kavelashvili to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral is a direct message to the United States that not only will we not ensure the neutralization of Iranian harmful influence networks on Georgian territory, but quite the opposite - one of the main figures of our criminal group, the so-called President, will go to the funeral. This was stated by Giga Lemonjava, one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” during his appearance on “PalitraNews” program “Day’s Newsroom,” while assessing the Georgian government’s decision that President Mikheil Kavelashvili will attend the funeral ceremony of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to him, this action will strengthen the belief among Americans that not only is it impossible to negotiate with “Georgian Dream,” but on the contrary, any new round of negotiations increases their appetite and the level of their arrogance.

“Sending Kavelashvili to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral should be viewed not as an isolated fact, but as part of a bigger picture. The big picture looks like this: in Georgia, particularly in the Kvemo Kartli region, the network of Iran’s harmful influence is expanding and strengthening. We constantly see the glorification of terrorist symbols at various gatherings, religious rituals, or civil assemblies. This includes photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Qasem Soleimani, and Hezbollah’s former Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. This is happening in Georgia and implies the expansion of Iran’s harmful influence network on ideological, political, and operational levels.

Georgia’s so-called government is a satellite of the Kremlin, the Chinese Communist Party, and Iran’s terrorist regime. This is the big picture. One important episode in this picture was the so-called Prime Minister Kobakhidze’s visit to Tehran, where he also attended a funeral. He was in the hall where they were chanting ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel.’ Kobakhidze was there, surrounded by terrorists, some of whom are no longer alive as a result of anti-terrorist operations. This is how it all started. In this picture, we should imagine the so-called President Kavelashvili’s visit to Tehran for the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the torturer of his own people and the face of a terrorist regime.

As for diplomatic relations with Iran, Georgia also has diplomatic relations with EU member states and the United States. We see very well what ‘Georgian Dream’s’ rhetoric and actions are toward them. Having diplomatic relations with a country does not mean that the first person of the state should be represented at the funeral of a terrorist. They use the argument that leaders of neighboring countries may also go to Tehran. We do not know at what level these visits from neighboring countries will be, whether the first persons will go or not. They do not have the internal challenges that we do. Their governments - Armenia and Azerbaijan - do not allow the expansion and strengthening of Iran’s harmful influence network on their territory. These two countries and their political leadership are not satellites of Iran’s terrorist regime. Therefore, they have freedom of action.

Georgia’s context is fundamentally different. Georgia is isolated from the United States and European countries - I mean ‘Georgian Dream.’ It is close to Iran’s terrorist regime, the Chinese Communist Party, and the Kremlin. When a US State Department delegation was in Georgia a few weeks ago and a special statement was issued after the visit, it explicitly stated that a necessary precondition for normalizing relations between the United States and Georgia is the neutralization of harmful influence networks of hostile states on Georgian territory, which naturally includes the neutralization of Iran’s terrorist regime network. One of the preconditions for ‘Georgian Dream’ to normalize relations with the Americans is, among other things, the involvement of American and, in general, Western and European companies in the construction of the Anaklia Port. Today, the Anaklia Port is in the hands of a Russian-Chinese conglomerate, which naturally goes against Georgia’s national interests and also against US interests in the region.

Sending Kavelashvili to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral is a direct message to the United States that not only will we not ensure the neutralization of Iranian harmful influence networks on Georgian territory and reduce the influence of Iran’s terrorist regime, but quite the opposite - one of the main figures of our criminal group, Kavelashvili, the so-called President, will go to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral.

I do not know if there will be a public reaction from the American side, but naturally, it will strengthen the belief among Americans that it is not only impossible to negotiate with ‘Georgian Dream,’ but on the contrary, any new round of negotiations increases their appetite and the level of their arrogance, and will ultimately shape the position in the United States on how to deal with Ivanishvili’s regime. Americans will see even more clearly that the realization of the Georgian people’s national interests on the territory of this country and in the region, and accordingly, the realization of US interests in the region, necessarily requires the removal of Ivanishvili’s regime from de facto power,” Giga Lemonjava stated.

Regarding other issues, during his appearance on the program, the opposition politician also spoke about the health problems of one of the leaders of their coalition, Elene Khoshtaria, and responded to the assessment of “Vivamedi” clinic’s general director Nino Nadiradze, who said that “revolutionism should not be accompanied by crying and moaning.” As Lemonjava stated, it is characteristic of the Russian system when a doctor mocks patients’ health.

“This woman is a doctor who speaks contemptuously about people’s health. When we say that this is a Russian system, this is exactly what we mean. This applies not only to so-called political office holders or abusive law enforcers, but to all layers of this system, including these executioner so-called doctors. How can a person who speaks contemptuously about other people’s health be a doctor? I am not surprised. I am fully aware of what kind of system we are dealing with. This is absolute evil, a depraved and corrupt system, including corrupt people for whom human life and health mean nothing. They call themselves doctors and mock patients’ health,” Giga Lemonjava stated.

Another issue he addressed was the so-called “sabotage case,” in which many opposition politicians are charged. According to him, this is a new wave of attack on the opposition.

“The purpose of this spectacle is to break the pro-Western political spectrum, including the ‘Coalition for Change.’ Our friends are being told that they will not go to prison for 7-8 months, but for 4 years. Elene, Zura, and Giorgi Vashadze also face articles carrying 7 to 15 years. This is a new wave of attack on the opposition. In response to this, I want to clearly tell the regime: the ‘Coalition for Change’ has gone through a period when all four leaders were in prison. However, not for a single moment have we stopped the struggle for Georgia’s freedom. The ‘Coalition for Change’ is not an electoral project or a group of people gathered around mercantile tasks. It is a conscious unity for Georgia’s freedom and to achieve change, and the people who are in the ‘Droa’ party or represent the ‘Coalition for Change’ do not intend to stop this struggle. We will not! There is no pressure mechanism that these people can use to stop our struggle. Even if they arrest us, others will rise, take up the flag of this struggle, and others will continue. This struggle has only one end - the overthrow of the regime, the collapse of the regime, and Georgia’s victory. That is the truth. I think Ivanishvili will have to face this truth. No such Russian regime in Georgia will be able to stop the protest.

I will not control my own dictionary or refuse to say what I have the right to say just so that others do not end up in prison for using the word ‘overthrow.’ The fact that this regime must be overthrown is a fact. This is a regime that tortured more than 500 young people in police ‘minivans’ just in the days of November–December alone. It poisoned its own people with chemical weapons. Now it is torturing people in prison and denying them healthcare services. It has distanced Georgia from the European path. It has subordinated this country to Russia, the Chinese Communist Party, and Iran. And after all that, if someone does not want us to say on air that this regime must be overthrown, it will not work. It must be overthrown, yes!” Lemonjava stated.