President Saakashvili said on May 17 that an agreement, mediated by Brazil and Turkey, to send low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for receiving nuclear fuel for an Iranian nuclear reactor was "a diplomatic victory" and "a matter of survival" for the small countries of the region.

President Saakashvili was speaking, while standing alongside with Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Georgia's Black Sea town of Batumi, where Erdogan arrived on Monday evening after talks in Tehran and Baku.

Saakashvili described the Turkish PM's contribution to the Iranian nuclear deal as "a diplomatic heroism, which will go down in history." 

"We were worried; our fate depends on how things surrounding the Iranian nuclear program will develop," Saakashvili said.

"This is a matter of death and life for small countries; this is a matter of survival. It has been a hopeless situation for years. Today Brazilian President [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva] - who has conveyed his regards to me and I conveyed mines to him - and PM Erdogan, who has been stating throughout all these months that there was a chance to negotiate and usually his [optimism] was not shared, arrived in Tehran and actually saved [the deal] on Iranian nuclear program."

"This is a real diplomatic breakthrough and a great diplomatic victory for Iran, Europe, the United States and the world and for the entire region, for Turkey and of course for Georgia... This is peace for Iran and for the entire region and for Georgia as well," Saakashvili said.

Meanwhile, the English-language Tehran Times reported that President Saakashvili invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Tbilisi. According this report the invitation was extended on May 14, when Iran's new ambassador in Tbilisi, Majid Saber, submitted his credentials to President Saakashvili. No immediate confirmation was available from the Georgian President's administration of this report on May 17.