The Droa! (“It’s Time!”) party has stated that an organized system of indoctrination, radicalization, and recruitment of Georgian citizens, including children and youth, is operating in the Kvemo Kartli region, which it claims is backed by the Iranian regime.
The statement was prompted by footage from the Imam Ali Mosque in Marneuli, where worshippers were performing a religious chant in front of a poster of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The party claims that similar incidents have also been recorded in Gardabani.
Droa! believes that Iranian influence in the region has reached an alarming level, and that the Georgian authorities are creating favorable conditions for the expansion of the Iranian influence network. The party states that such a policy poses a threat to national security, stability, and peace in the country.
“In the Kvemo Kartli region, the influence of the Iranian regime — political, ideological, and operational — is reaching an alarming level. We are observing a trend toward the expansion of the Iranian influence network, which is being quite deliberately facilitated by the Ivanishvili regime,” noted the party of Elene Khoshtaria.
The statement also notes that the strengthening of Iranian influence could negatively impact Georgia’s strategic partnership with the United States.
“According to the document, one of the key conditions for normalizing Georgian-American relations is freeing the country from harmful foreign influence. This refers to neutralizing the influence networks of Russia, China, and Iran,” the authors write.
According to the party, resolving the issue requires a change of government and the neutralization of foreign influence from Iran, Russia, and China.
“A way out of this situation is only possible through a change of the “Georgian Dream” regime — a regime that, according to the party, has betrayed the country’s interests and uses the state security apparatus not to analyze and combat real challenges and threats, but to persecute politically undesirable citizens,” the party stated.
