24:T42e,

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Washington will not accept any attempt by Iran to maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz.

In an interview with Fox News, Rubio stressed that the United States could not tolerate a situation in which Iran regulates the passage of vessels through the strategically vital waterway or imposes its own charges for its use.

According to Rubio, allowing such a system would turn an international maritime corridor into an instrument of political pressure.

He warned that keeping the strait “open” could not mean that Tehran would be able to establish a permissions regime or threaten ships passing through the route.

“Their attempts to normalise such a system cannot be accepted, and we cannot tolerate efforts to make it seem normal for Iran to decide who may use an international passage and how much they must pay for that access,” Rubio said.

25:T556,

A leader of the Coalition for Change, Nika Gvaramia, on Monday said his primary focus is to ensure the opposition alliance remains united amid growing tensions and criticism within the opposition.

Gvaramia said preserving the alliance was his main priority, stressing the importance of maintaining unity among opposition forces.

“The only thing I am thinking about is ensuring that the alliance is preserved – that is my objective,” he said.

Gvaramia also criticised what he described as a “smear campaign” taking place across the opposition spectrum, noting that the alliance had become a particular target.

“We are seeing a completely incomprehensible campaign of mutual discrediting across the opposition, not only within the alliance, but especially directed at the alliance. At the same time, within the protest movement there is internal conflict taking place,” he said.

“When such things happen simultaneously, and with similar themes and methods, it is never accidental,” he added.

He further argued that political groups fighting for the country’s future should not remain focused on past disputes.

26:T57b,

Georgia’s parliamentary majority leader, Irakli Kirtskhalia, on Monday said the Georgian public had “made a very clear choice” and alleged that this was something critics “cannot accept”.

He said statements made by EU Ambassador Paweł Herczyński were “insulting”, though “not new” for Georgian society.

“Unfortunately, such arrogant and offensive rhetoric is nothing new for us. Society has, in a way, become used to this audacity and arrogance, whether it comes from the EU Ambassador or another diplomatic representative,” he stated.

Kirtskhalia also accused foreign diplomats of interfering in Georgia’s electoral processes, alleging that they had openly shown support for certain political parties during both parliamentary and local elections.

He further argued that these representatives had “gone beyond every moral boundary in the host country”, claiming that the public now clearly understood “who they really are” and what agenda they were allegedly pursuing.

Kirtskhalia maintained that the Georgian state’s response to what he described as offensive rhetoric had been appropriate, adding that “a self-respecting state must react to such insults”.

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