The report says Georgia contacted Iran’s largest sanctions evasion center amid pressure

with Iran With its increasing isolation among its neighbors in the Gulf, recent reports indicate that Tehran is working to deepen its relations in the South Caucasus with the Republic of Georgia.

The former Soviet republic, which until recently was seen as an aspiration to join the European Union and a potential candidate for NATO membership, is slowly moving closer to Tehran.

“Iran has built an extensive infrastructure of influence in Georgia, which includes entities that the US government has sanctioned for their links to extremism and are viewed in Washington as fronts for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Giorgi Kandelaki, a former member of the Georgian parliament, told Fox News Digital.

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An anti-war activist holds an Iranian flag during a rally organized by the Stop the War coalition, calling for an end to hostilities amid the US-Israel 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 and the Iranian transformation: Tehran’s rapid expansion of its influence with a US ally, he said that Tbilisi’s shift towards Iran is bad for the Georgians but also bad for US interests in the region.

He added, “Georgia has an overwhelmingly pro-American public opinion committed to Western values, and is also viewed as a traditional US ally in Washington. This reality sets a terrible precedent, and reversing this course is in the interest of the United States and Georgian society as well.”

While Georgia has remained diplomatically neutral, the Hudson Report details the emerging relationship between the two countries and how Iran is using Georgia as an intelligence infrastructure network, infiltrating Georgia’s religious, educational, and cultural institutions to influence society.

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Supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party attend a rally in central Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, October 23, 2024. (Shakh Ayvazov/AFP)

In 2007, Iran opened the Georgian branch of Al-Mustafa University, Which is considered one of Iran’s main arms for spreading the ideology of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini abroad, according to the United Against Nuclear Iran organization.

The US Treasury Department reported in 2020 that the IRGC-QF 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 arrival of unintended tourists from Western countries to Iran, from whom members of the IRGC Quds Force sought to gather intelligence,” the Treasury Department said. She also said that the university facilitated student exchanges with foreign universities to develop intelligence sources.

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A photo of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 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 the university’s annual budget at $100 million, and it has trained tens of thousands of emissaries around the world who spread Iran’s revolutionary ideology.

Iran has used Georgian sympathizers to commit international crimes to advance its domestic agenda.

Despite having absolutely no ties to the Tbilisi government, Georgian citizen Agil Aslanov, who had 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, a Georgian citizen Bolad Omarov He was indicted in federal court in New York City and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the attempted assassination of prominent Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic’s use of violence against peaceful protesters.

Georgia once achieved great successes in strengthening 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 joined the United States, contributed to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and eventually signed the Strategic Partnership Charter with the United States in 2009.

In this image taken from a video released by the Georgian Dream Party on Sunday, October 27, 2024, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze speaks after parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Georgian Dream Party/AP)

Tbilisi’s ties with Tehran were expanded under the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party that took power in 2012. These ties have been tightened, according to analysts, after pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili ended her six-year term in 2024 and was replaced by Mikheil Kavelashvili, who was chosen as her successor by a newly created electoral body and is said to be dominated by Georgian Dream supporters. On her.

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Kavelashvili’s appointment came in the wake of the parliamentary elections that took place in October 2024, which were marred by some irregularities, according to what Reuters reported. US Embassy in TbilisiWhere the Georgian Dream declared victory.

A billboard depicting Iran’s top leaders since 1979: (L-R) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (until 1989), Ali Khamenei (until 2026), and Mojtaba Khamenei (incumbent) is displayed above a highway in Tehran on March 10, 2026. Iran celebrated the appointment of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father as its supreme leader on March 9. 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)

Leadership relations between the two countries have grown steadily since the disputed 2024 parliamentary victory of the Georgian Dream.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze visited Iran in May 2024 to attend the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter accident, and again in July to attend the inauguration of Iran’s current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, with Iranian news agencies reporting that the two leaders praised the growing relationship between the two countries.

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Many Georgian companies also import Oil and petroleum products from IranIt is a major economic lifeline for the regime and its regional war efforts, according to him Georgian NGO Civic IDEA. In 2024, Iran’s oil export revenues amounted to about $43 billion, representing about 57% of Iran’s total export revenues.

Iranian flags flutter as flames and smoke rise from the Israeli attack on the Sharan oil depot, following Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA)

According to Civic IDEA, between 2022 and 2025, 72 companies registered in Georgia imported Iranian petroleum and oil, including eight companies signed on as donors from the ruling Georgian Dream party, boosting Iran’s revenue flow even under severe sanctions by Western countries.

“Georgia has become Iran’s main hub for sanctions evasion… funneling hard currency to Tehran’s war machine and the IRGC through specific schemes in oil imports,” Nicholas Chkheidze, a Tbilisi-based national security and strategic communications analyst, told Fox News Digital.

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These Georgian companies Chkhaidze said so Importing Iranian oil Payment is in cash and can bypass international banking sanctions.

“The scale is enormous, as Tehran uses the proceeds of these schemes to finance its regional operations,” Chkheidze claimed.

Requests for comment by phone and email sent to the Georgia government were not responded to. A spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations did not comment on relations between the two countries.