A. POLE: What about the "negative effect on relations between" Teheran and Tbilisi?!
While air strikes are not officially considered at this time, it's clear they are unofficially being considered by many governments. Therefore, it wouldn't be wise for Tbilisi to say anything official on the subject. As for relations with Tehran, it looks like Tehran has isolated itself so well that foreign relations between Tehran and its neighbors have degraded into "get gas and oil from the mullahs while it can be got". Regime change may come in the near term and it is understood by Georgia, Turkey, Japan and China that pipelines have temporary masters. Georgian gas deals like this one illustrate that the Iranian government is not much more than a whore that stays in power only through manipulating its customers. This whoring behavior is not diplomacy and only vaguely approaches international relations. It goes without saying that in its current incarnation Tehran has political AIDS and its carriers are its most ardent allies.
I’d be interested to see a list of positive effects on relations between Tehran and any other government, besides the ardent enemies of the United States, which of course would be a list of negatives anyway. Thanks for the ping and playing the devil’s advocate A-Pole.
BTW, do you know which countries made easy and quick overthrow of Taleban possible? Do you know how were the sponsors of Northern Alliance?