Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement read by a television presenter on Wednesday that his country will not accept US President Donald Trump’s call for an unconditional surrender, Azernews reports, citing Arab News.
Day: June 18, 2025
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Giorgi Gvarakidze was named as a candidate for Georgia’s next prosecutor general on June 17 by the prosecutorial council. His candidacy is set to be submitted to the one-party Georgian Dream parliament for approval.
The post has been vacant since Giorgi Gabitashvili, sanctioned by the U.K. and Estonia, was nominated on June 4 and subsequently approved as chief auditor on June 11 amid broader Georgian Dream reshuffles.
Gvarakidze’s nomination as Georgia’s next prosecutor general followed a June 12 legislative change that scrapped the requirement for consultations with civil society groups, academics, and legal experts in selecting nominees. The revised law left the authority to the prosecutorial council. Gvarakidze was nominated by council member and former chair Shota Tkeshelashvili.
Following Giorgi Gabitashvili’s nomination for the new post on June 4, Giorgi Gvarakidze was appointed first deputy prosecutor general and has since been serving as acting prosecutor general. In May, he became Tbilisi prosecutor, replacing Levan Gegechkori, who was sanctioned by Lithuania.
Gvarakidze has served in Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office since 2003. In 2024-2025, he was the deputy head of the special affairs investigation department of the Special Investigative Service.
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze signaled support for the candidate, telling journalists on June 18, that Gvarakidze is “distinguished by the high level of professionalism.”
“I hope he will obtain the Georgian parliament’s vote of confidence, and I think he will serve with integrity the protection of the rule of law in our country,” Kobakhidze added.
Also Read:
- 19/05/2025 – Special Investigation Service to Fold Into Prosecutor’s Office
- 28/05/2025 – Kobakhidze Appoints New Interior Minister
- 07/05/2025 – Kobakhidze Named New Chair of Georgian Dream, Presents Updated GD Political Council
- 25/04/2025 – GD Chairman Garibashvili Quits Politics, Stresses Loyalty to Ivanishvili
- 10/04/2025 – Consolidating Autocracy? GD Reshuffle Leaves Experts Guessing
- 04/04/2025 – GD Drops Security Chief Liluashvili as Minister Pick
Georgia won’t invite OSCE observers
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded to criticism from the British Embassy in Georgia over the party’s decision not to invite the OSCE/ODIHR to observe the municipal elections scheduled for October 2025.
Kobakhidze claimed that there is no established practice of inviting OSCE/ODIHR to monitor municipal elections — only parliamentary ones. He added that Georgian Dream would hold the local elections in a “healthy environment” even without any observers.
The British Embassy in Georgia has called on the Georgian authorities to invite an OSCE/ODIHR mission to observe the upcoming municipal elections and to take into account all recommendations outlined in the organisation’s final report on the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The embassy stressed that it strongly disagrees with the Georgian government’s assessment that funding voter education efforts, supporting domestic election monitoring groups, and participating in OSCE/ODIHR missions amounts to “funding propaganda and extremism.”
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze responded:
“In general, there is no practice of inviting OSCE/ODIHR to observe local elections. There are exceptions — we had one in 2021, but only because those local elections were politically tied to the parliamentary elections. In other countries as well, there are occasional exceptions, but they are just that — exceptions.
As a standard practice, OSCE/ODIHR missions are invited to observe parliamentary elections. Therefore, we believe that in this case, OSCE/ODIHR should not be burdened with our local elections. They will be held in a healthy environment.
You know that OSCE/ODIHR observed the parliamentary elections and issued a report, but nobody showed any interest in that report. And now, the very same people who completely ignored OSCE/ODIHR’s findings are asking us to invite them again,” Kobakhidze said.
The Prime Minister also stated that the government is open to improving relations with the United Kingdom, although, in his words, this is being hindered by what he called a “harmful practice of funding extremism” from London:
“As for Georgia–UK cooperation, of course, we are fully open to it, but it is very important that such cooperation is built on clear principles. In this regard, we must remember that there have been certain harmful practices in our country, including the financing of extremism.
Naturally, such facts hinder the development of healthy partnership relations. Recently, there have been attempts to fund several organisations — organisations directly connected to the radical opposition.”
