Trump tells Europe to ‘get your own oil’ as Iran conflict leads to oil shortages
President Trump steps up pressure on Iran with joint US-Israel strikes, releasing new video of attacks on nuclear sites in Isfahan. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that there should be a change in the behavior of the Iranian regime. FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan revealed that the March 12 attack on a Michigan synagogue was inspired by Hezbollah, raising domestic terror concerns amid DHS funding disputes.
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Iran is becoming increasingly isolated among its Gulf neighbors, with recent reports suggesting that Tehran is deepening its ties with the Republic of Georgia in the South Caucasus.
The former Soviet republic, which until recently was seen as an ambitious EU and potential NATO member candidate, has gradually drawn closer to Tehran.
“Iran has built a vast influence infrastructure in Georgia, including entities sanctioned by the US government for being linked to extremism and entities viewed in Washington as fronts for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” former member of the Georgian parliament Giorgi Kandelaki told Fox News Digital.
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An anti-war activist holds an Iranian flag during a march organized by the Stop the War Coalition, calling for an end to hostilities amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in London on March 7, 2026. (Jack Taylor/Reuters)
Kandelaki, co-author of a recent report with the Hudson Institute titled Georgia’s Iranian Turn: Tehran’s Rapid Expansion of Influence in a Once-Committed U.S. Ally, said Tbilisi’s turn toward Iran is bad for the Georgian people, but also bad for U.S. interests in the region.
He said, “Georgia has an overwhelmingly pro-American public opinion that is committed to Western values and is also viewed in Washington as a traditional US ally. This reality sets a terrible precedent and reversing this trajectory is in the interests of both the US as well as Georgian society.”
While Georgia has remained diplomatically neutral, the Hudson Report details emerging relations between the two countries and how Iran uses Georgia as a network for intelligence infrastructure, penetrating Georgia’s religious, educational and cultural institutions to influence society.
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Supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party take part in a rally in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Shakh Aivazov/AP)
According to United Against a Nuclear Iran, in 2007 itself, Iran opened the Georgian branch of Al-Mustafa University, which is considered one of Iran’s main weapons for spreading the ideology of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, abroad.
The US Treasury Department said in 2020 that Iran’s IRGC-Quds Force uses Al-Mustafa University in Georgia as an international recruitment network for Iran and serves as a conduit for the Islamic Republic’s ideological and security interests.
“Al-Mustafa facilitated the entry of unknowing tourists from Western countries to Iran, from whom members of the IRGC-Qud force sought to gather intelligence,” the Treasury Department said. It also said the university facilitated student exchanges with foreign universities to develop intelligence sources.
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A portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed at the entrance of the Iranian Embassy in Tbilisi on March 6, 2026. (Vano Shalamov/AFP via Getty Images)
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A report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies estimated that the university has an annual budget of $100 million and has trained thousands of emissaries around the world who have spread Iran’s revolutionary ideology.
Iran has used sympathetic Georgians to commit international crimes to advance its domestic agenda.
While no links have ever been made to the Tbilisi government, a Georgian citizen, Egil Aslanov, with ties to organized crime, was reportedly recruited by the Quds Forces to assassinate a prominent Jewish leader in Azerbaijan in 2022. In another case in 2025, Georgian citizen Polad Omarov was convicted in federal court in New York City and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the attempted murder of prominent Iranian activist Massih Alinejad. An outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic’s use of violence against peaceful protesters.
Georgia made significant progress in fostering political and security relations with the United States following the Rose Revolution in 2003, becoming the cornerstone of regional security in the Black Sea region. After decades of Soviet rule, Georgia aligned itself with the United States, contributing to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and eventually signing a strategic partnership charter with the United States in 2009.
In this photo taken from video released by the Georgian Dream party on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze speaks after parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Georgian Dream Party/AP)
Tbilisi’s ties with Tehran have expanded under the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, which took power in 2012. According to analysts, the bond is set to tighten further after Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili completes her six-year term in office in 2024 and is replaced by Mikhail Kavelashvili, who was reportedly chosen as her successor by a newly established electoral college dominated by Georgian Dream supporters.
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Kavelashvili’s installment came after parliamentary elections in October 2024 were marred by some irregularities, in which Georgian Dream declared victory, according to the US Embassy in Tbilisi.
A billboard depicting the supreme leaders of Iran since 1979: (left to right) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (until 1989), Ali Khamenei (until 2026), and Mojtaba Khamenei (present) is displayed above a highway in Tehran on March 10, 2026. Iran appointed Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei as its supreme leader in March, replacing his father. 9, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
Leadership ties between the two countries have grown steadily since Georgian Dream’s disputed 2024 parliamentary victory.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze visited Iran in May 2024 for the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash, and again in July to attend the inauguration of Iran’s current President Massoud Pezeshkian, where Iranian news agencies reported that the two leaders praised growing relations between the two countries.
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According to the Georgian NGO Civic IDEA, many Georgian companies are also importing oil and petroleum products from Iran, a key economic lifeline for the regime and its regional war efforts. In 2024, Iranian oil export revenue was approximately $43 billion, which is approximately 57% of Iran’s total export revenue.
Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from the Israeli attack on the Sharan Oil Depot, following Israeli attacks, in Tehran, Iran on June 15, 2025. (Majid Asgharipur/WANA)
According to Civic IDEA, between 2022 and 2025, 72 companies registered in Georgia imported Iranian oil and petroleum, eight of which included donors to the ruling Georgian Dream party, increasing Iran’s revenue flows despite heavy sanctions by Western countries.
“Georgia has become Iran’s primary sanctions-evasion hub… sending hard currency back into Tehran’s war machine and the IRGC through specific schemes in oil imports,” Nicholas Chkhaidze, a national security and strategic communications analyst based in Tbilisi, told Fox News Digital.
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Chkhaidze said these Georgian companies that import Iranian oil pay in cash and can circumvent international banking sanctions.
Chakhaidze claimed, “The scale is huge, as Tehran uses the revenues from these schemes to finance its regional operations.”
Telephone and email requests for comment to the Georgia government were not returned. A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations would not comment on relations between the two countries.
