World
Georgia’s president will not step down until ‘illegitimate’ election rerun
Pro-EU critic of governing Georgian Dream party says she won’t leave office next month as parliament elected fraudulently.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said she will not leave office when her term ends because the parliament is “illegitimate”, while the prime minister warned against a “revolution” amid continuing pro-European Union protests.
Thousands of Georgians protested on Saturday for a third straight night after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the government will suspend talks on EU accession.
The goal to join the 27-member is now enshrined in Georgia’s constitution, but the prime minister – who has been building closer ties with Russia – suspended the talks for four years and accused Brussels of “blackmail”.
In an address on Saturday, Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the Georgian Dream governing party, said parliament had no right to elect her successor when her term ends in December, and that she would stay in post.
The president, whose powers are largely ceremonial, maintains that the country’s October 26 election, which was won by Georgian Dream with 54 percent of the vote, was fraudulent and therefore renders the elected parliament illegitimate.
“There is no legitimate parliament, and therefore, an illegitimate parliament cannot elect a new president. Thus, no inauguration can take place, and my mandate continues until a legitimately elected parliament is formed,” she said.
Georgia’s election commission earlier this month confirmed the governing party as the winner, but watchdogs and politicians in the EU and the United States have also suggested an investigation needs to look into potential fraud.
The country’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 107 people in the capital, Tblisi, overnight during protests which saw some demonstrators build barricades and throw fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and tear gas.
The unrest came as Kobakhidze, the prime minister, accused opponents of the government’s move to halt EU accession talks of plotting a revolution, similar to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan protest, which deposed a pro-Russian president.
“In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realised. Georgia is a state, and the state will not, of course, permit this,” Kobakhidze was quoted as saying by local media.
The US State Department said on Saturday it had suspended its strategic partnership with Georgia following the decision by the Georgian Dream party to suspend accession to the EU.
“We condemn excessive force used against Georgians rightfully protesting this betrayal of their constitution – EU is a bulwark against Kremlin,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X.
“We have therefore suspended our Strategic Partnership with Georgia.”
Georgia gained independence from neighbouring Russia in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the two countries have not had any diplomatic relations since a brief 2008 war over Moscow-backed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
But the Georgian Dream party’s efforts to build closer relations with Russia had already stalled the country’s application to join the EU.
The bloc has said laws against “foreign agents” and LGBTQ rights are among the main reasons behind the stall, as they curtail human rights and are modelled after legislation in Russia.
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As the Trump administration pushes forward with a new Iran deal, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told a Paris gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran — an exiled Iranian opposition coalition aligned with the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) — that Tehran’s rulers are weaker than they have been in decades and urged dissidents to seize what he described as a historic opening.
“The window is open wider than at any moment in a generation, and windows do not stay open forever,” Kellogg said at the two-day event. “The theocratic regime in Tehran will not leave voluntarily. You must force it. The hope is here. Now must come the action.”
Kellogg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, framed any disarmament agreement not as an endpoint, but as “the first step of something far larger,” saying it should become the foundation for Iran’s future without the current regime.
POMPEO SAYS IRANIAN REGIME HAS ARRIVED AT ‘NATURAL TERMINUS’: ‘LET’S NOT WASTE THIS HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY’
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg speaks at the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s two-day conference in Paris, where he urged Iranian opposition supporters to seize what he called a historic opening against Tehran’s regime. (Mousa Mohebbi)
Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president-elect, used her remarks at the conference to argue that neither war nor negotiations had solved the threat posed by Tehran’s rulers. “A peaceful, non-nuclear Iran is possible only through the overthrow of this regime by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance,” Rajavi said, adding that any international agreement to end the war should include an end to executions of political prisoners and the killing of protesters.
Kellogg also invoked the NCRI’s 2002 disclosure of Iran’s Natanz and Arak nuclear sites, saying the group should play a role in pushing for strict verification of any agreement. “When I say trust, but verify, understand that verification is not an abstraction to this Council. It is your legacy,” he said. “You must be the conscience that ensures every barrel of uranium leaves, every centrifuge stops, and every promise on that page becomes a fact on the ground.”
The remarks came as NCRI organizers had expected tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates from North America and Europe to attend two days of events in Paris. French authorities banned a planned outdoor rally, citing security threats. A French court later upheld the ban, pointing to specific intelligence about alleged bomb threats and risks of violence involving rival Iranian opposition factions, including possible threats from Iranian regime-linked actors or monarchist groups.
FRANCE CONDEMNS IRAN PROTEST CRACKDOWN, WEIGHS SATELLITE INTERNET AID AMID BLACKOUT
Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, speaks at the NCRI’s two-day conference in Paris, where she called for a democratic republic in Iran and said any international agreement should include an end to executions of political prisoners. June 21, 2026. (Mousa Mohebbi)
The NCRI’s main member organization is the MEK, which was previously listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S., U.K. and European Union before being delisted in 2012. The group is a major thorn in the side of the Tehran regime and has been the target of alleged Iranian plots in the U.S. and Europe, including a foiled 2018 bomb plot against the group’s rally outside Paris.
Despite the ban, demonstrators gathered at the site on Saturday. Police ordered the crowd to disperse and arrested around 20 people, a police source told AFP.
Ali Safavi, a member of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital that the French decision amounted to “an unjustifiable act of capitulation,” arguing that Paris should have protected the rally rather than banning it, “Rather than yielding to intimidation, France should have defended the fundamental democratic right to peaceful assembly.”
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also criticized the French ban, calling it a “tragic mistake” and saying Western capitals must allow Iranian opposition voices to be heard.
IRAN GOES DARK AS REGIME UNLEASHES FORCE, CYBER TOOLS TO CRUSH PROTESTS
Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran gather in Paris on June 20, 2026, after French authorities banned an outdoor rally against repression and executions in Iran. Police ordered demonstrators to disperse and arrested around 20 people, according to AFP. (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
“If the voices of freedom are to be heard in Iran, then we in the West must allow those voices of freedom to be heard in our capitals and around the world,” Johnson said during his speech.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also addressed the event Saturday, linking Ukraine’s struggle against Russia to the Iranian opposition’s fight against Tehran. Kuleba said Ukrainians had wanted to join the rally and were “appalled” by the French ban, adding, “The people of Ukraine stand by those who defend democracy, freedom, liberty in their lands.”
He also pointed to Iran’s support for Russia’s war effort, saying that while Russian ballistic missiles were targeting Kyiv, drones using technology “provided to Russia by the current regime in Iran” were also striking Ukraine.
Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran gather in Paris after French authorities banned a rally against repression and executions in Iran, June 20, 2026. (National Council of Resistance of Iran)
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“Like you, I know very well what it means to be attacked and killed and destroyed by the regime that currently holds its grip over the people of Iran,” Kuleba said.
The French government did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Al Jazeera’s Robert McBride brings you the latest from southern Lebanon as Israeli attacks intensify amid ongoing diplomatic efforts.
Published On 22 Jun 2026
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