"PM Irakli Kobakhidze said Bidzina Ivanishvili would not see me because we have on him defacto sanctions. There are no any sanctions on him at this point. For such an influential individual to be that badly misinformed is shocking and disappointing,”- James C. O’Brien, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, stated at a press conference in Tbilisi.
As Jim O’Brien pointed out, neither the process nor the law meets these standards.
“So in this sense, if the conversations that we discussed today happen and the law is properly modified, it will be a way of strengthening our partnership, rather than wrenching it apart, which I fear that it is now doing. But that was just one kind of conversation that I had, and the law is a small part of a broader conversation, and the broader conversation concerns comments by leaders of the Georgian Dream, that there is a global war party, and that Georgia must turn away from the commitments made to the global war party, and that there is a conspiracy by the West to remove Georgian Dream from office despite 12 years of strong cooperation. It is unreal, wrong, and a complete misunderstanding of the international community’s relationship to Georgia.
One example of it is what the Prime Minister mentioned last night. So we had reached out for conversations with all stakeholders. We had invited the Prime Minister to Washington to discuss the law and the relationship. The European Union had discussions here and was promised time for a conversation about the law. I asked before coming here, I was happy to see Mr. Ivanashvili again. The PM said he [Ivanishvili] would not see me because we have on him defacto sanctions. There are no any sanctions on him at this point. For such an influential individual to be that badly misinformed is shocking and disappointing,” Jim O’Brien added.
