"... But Iran’s new-found friendship has Georgia -- the United States' closest ally in the Caucasus, and the recipient of roughly $4.5 billion in Western aid in the past two years -- dancing the diplomatic two-step. Earlier this week, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze saluted Iran as one of the most powerful countries in the region, while stressing -- repeatedly -- that Tbilisi’s relationship with its Persian neighbor is solely about trade and tourism. “We largely ... depend on the United States for political support. Therefore, it is absolutely groundless to suggest that we are somehow questioning this strategic cooperation,” she said at a news conference. “We have no under-the-table relations with anyone, especially Iran.”
After ignoring the Caucasus for decades in favor of fellow Muslims in the Persian Gulf and South Asia, Iran has been largely excluded from the geopolitical chess game in the South Caucasus, where Turkey and Russia dominate. Now, beset by sanctions and with its internal politics in turmoil, Iran is cultivating new relationships with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, hoping to regain its once-potent role as a regional power, explore new trade partners and -- at the very least -- keep the South Caucasus from becoming a base for the U.S. military. Sometimes building new friendships means opening the pocketbook. This past year, Tehran has offered to help Tbilisi build a new hydroelectric plant, made good on a plan to reopen a long-abandoned Iranian consulate in western Georgia, and sent 15,000 Iranian tourists on chartered planes to Georgia's struggling Black Sea resorts. Iran also said it wants to buy nearly 10 times as much gas from Azerbaijan as it did last year, and proposed building a $1.2-billion railroad linking Armenia to the Persian Gulf...."
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