I'm very disappointed... The President can't take any steps

I am very disappointed that the president, who should reconcile both sides, is not able to take steps", former US ambassador to Georgia, Ian Kelly, said during the interview with the "Mtavari Channel".

"I think the president needs to take more steps to bring these two sides closer together. She's the person who needs to take those steps," Kelly said.

He says that Nika Gvaramia and Mikheil Saakashvili "are busy with political motives". However, to the question whether he was reffering to Salome Zurabishvili is releasing the political prisoners, Ian Kelly does not directly answer and says that Georgia's priority should be to "bring both sides closer together" in order to fulfill the recommendations of the European Commission.

It's very difficult for me to say this, but since time is running out and the European Commission has set the clock and it's ticking, the priority should be to bring both sides together to implement the recommendations, for the benefit of the country, so there should be joint work, in what way, I can't say, - says Kelly.

According to him, both the government and the opposition in Georgia should try to "put the country's interests before narrow political interests" and "minimize polarization".

We see every day that political parties are more busy with scoring points. I see this in my country as well, but when it comes to very important issues, we manage to agree on one position in the USA. That's what happened during the pandemic, said Ian Kelly.