Iran’s Ambassador to Georgia Ali Moujani has stated that no country was immune to the consequences of a regional crisis, adding that ‘those who supported Donald Trump yesterday are now forced to pay the price for that step’. The statement sparked backlash, with some interpreting it as a veiled threat to Georgia.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday morning, Moujani noted that ‘when some countries, whether inadvertently or hastily, cede their space and territory to external adventurists, they inevitably end up paying the price within their own borders sooner or later’. In his words, it’s a ‘fact about Donald Trump and the US policy that no one can reject’.
‘Today the signs are clear: disruptions in export routes, capital flight, and growing public anxiety over the consequences of a devastating war, as well as the risks of escalation — including the threat of nuclear weapons use by the United States — these are all challenges facing decision-makers in small countries’, he added, referring to the ongoing war between the US, Israel, and Iran.
According to Moujani, the White House ‘is even considering passing the costs of this conflict onto countries south of Iran’.
‘This is precisely the point at which short-term decisions and miscalculations become long-term challenges’, he added.
The ambassador attached a popular internet meme to the post, captioned: ‘Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’.
The statement was preceded by a phone conversation between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day prior.
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Kobakhidze said the two had ‘emphasised the importance of resetting our partnership and reinforcing Georgia’s role as a strong partner in the South Caucasus. Committed to strengthening Georgia–US ties and advancing regional stability and connectivity [sentence fragment]’. In its part, the US readout simply said Rubio and Kobakhidze had ‘discussed areas of mutual interest including security in the Caucasus and Black Sea region’, with no further details.
Moujani, who began his ambassadorship in January and is known for being active on social media, did not directly mention Georgia in his latest statement. However, it was soon followed by fallout online, with some considering it as being threatening to the state and linked to the Kobakhidze-Rubio call.
Assessing the statement, conflict analyst Paata Zakareishvili said it was ‘apparently directly linked’ to Rubio’s call. He suggested that the US had ‘clearly decided’ on an intervention in Iranian territory, adding that the call was connected to Washington’s desire to gauge Tbilisi’s position on the ongoing conflict and to clarify what expectations it should have of Georgia.
‘This is an understandable development, and unexpectedly, Iran and its ambassador did not hesitate to make a rather crude, blunt statement’, he told Palitra News, noting that ‘at the very least, the ambassador should be summoned demonstratively, and there should be a clearly articulated verbal or written note asking what the ambassador meant, because this is a veiled threat, not a direct one’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
Some also criticised the foreign policy of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been accused by critics of distancing Georgia from Western partners while drawing closer to Russia, Iran, and China.
‘[The ruling party founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili has no geopolitical sense whatsoever. In reality, he doesn’t even know what he is doing. That’s the bitter truth’, wrote Salome Samadashvili, a member of the opposition party Lelo, on Facebook. Calling Moujani’s statement a ‘threatening message’, Samadashvili noted that the government ‘will not be able to provide any response’ to Iran.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
The opposition party Federalists also responded to Iran’s ambassador, saying his ‘public threat has still not been addressed by Ivanishvili’s regime, even 48 hours later’.
‘[This comes] at a time when every legitimate criticism of the regime by Georgia’s Western allies is met with a torrent of aggressive insults and defamation from the entire power vertical and propaganda infrastructure’, the party said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Amid the criticism, Moujani’s Facebook page was unavailable for a period of time.
Responding to journalists, Georgian Dream MP Aluda Gghudushauri told journalists to contact the Foreign Ministry. The ministry, for its part, has not yet publicly commented on Moujani’s remarks.
Following the outbreak of the war, which took on regional dimensions, the Georgian government offered condolences to both Iran and Israel, and also expressed solidarity with the Gulf countries.
