With Iran increasingly isolated among its Gulf neighbors, recent reports say Tehran has been deepening its ties in the South Caucasus with the Republic of Georgia.

The former Soviet republic, which was until recently seen as an aspiring European Union and potential NATO member candidate, has slowly moved closer to Tehran.

«Iran has built a vast influence infrastructure in Georgia, which includes entities sanctioned by the U.S. government for links to extremism and viewed in Washington as fronts for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),» Giorgi Kandelaki, former member of the Georgian Parliament, told Fox News Digital. 

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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 that Tbilisi’s turn toward Iran is bad for Georgians but also bad for U.S. interests in the region.

«Georgia has an overwhelmingly pro-U.S. public opinion committed to Western values with it also being viewed as a traditional U.S. ally in Washington. This reality presents a terrible precedent and reversing this trajectory is in the interest of both the U.S. but also Georgian society,» he added.

While Georgia has remained diplomatically neutral, the Hudson report details the budding ties between the two countries and how Iran uses Georgia as a network for intelligence infrastructure, penetrating Georgia’s religious, educational and cultural institutions to impact society.

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Supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party attend a rally in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (Shakh Aivazov/AP)

As far back as 2007, Iran opened the Georgian branch of Al-Mustafa University, which is considered one of Iran’s main arms for the dissemination of Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s ideology abroad, according to United Against a Nuclear Iran.

The U.S. Treasury Department stated in 2020 that Iran’s IRGC-Quds Force uses Al-Mustafa University in Georgia as an international recruitment network for Iran and acts as a conduit for the Islamic Republic’s ideological and security interests.

«Al-Mustafa has facilitated unwitting tourists from Western countries to come to Iran, from whom IRGC-Qud’s Force members sought to collect intelligence,» the Treasury Department said. It also said that the university facilitated student exchanges with foreign universities to develop intelligence sources.

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A portrait of the late Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits at the entrance to the Iranian embassy in Tbilisi on March 6, 2026.  (Vano Shlamov / AFP via Getty Images)

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A report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies estimated the university’s annual budget is $100 million and has trained tens of thousands of emissaries across the world who spread Iran’s revolutionary ideology.

Iran has utilized sympathetic Georgians to commit international crimes to advance its domestic agenda.

While no links have ever been made with the Tbilisi government, a Georgian national, 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, Georgian national Polad Omarov was indicted in federal court in New York City and sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempting to assassinate prominent Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic’s use of violence against peaceful protesters.

Georgia once made significant inroads to foster political and security ties with the United States following the Rose Revolution in 2003, becoming a bedrock 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 signed a Strategic Partnership Charter with the United States in 2009.

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

Tbilisi’s ties with Tehran have been expanded under the pro-Russia Georgian Dream party that took power in 2012. That bond, according to analysts, has tightened after Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili finished her six-year term in office in 2024 and was replaced by Mikheil Kavelashvili, who was chosen as her successor by a newly established electoral college reportedly dominated by Georgian Dream supporters.

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Kavelashvili’s installment followed parliamentary elections in Oct. 2024 marred by some irregularities, according to the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi, in which the Georgian Dream declared victory. 

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

Leadership ties between both countries have steadily grown since the Georgian Dream’s disputed 2024 parliamentary victory.

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

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Many Georgian companies are also importing oil and petroleum products from Iran, a key economic lifeline for the regime and its regional war efforts, according to Georgian NGO Civic IDEA. In 2024, Iranian oil export revenue was approximately $43 billion, which accounts for roughly 57% of Iran’s total export revenue.

Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, 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 oil and petroleum, including eight inked to donors of the ruling Georgian Dream party, boosting Iran’s revenue stream even while heavily sanctioned by Western nations.

«Georgia has become Iran’s primary sanctions-evasion hub . . . funneling hard currency back to Tehran’s war machine and the IRGC through specific schemes in oil imports,» Nicholas Chkhaidze, 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 bypass international banking sanctions. 

«The scale is massive, as Tehran uses the revenue from these schemes to fund its regional operations,» Chkhaidze claimed.

Telephone and email requests for comment sent to the government of Georgia were not returned. A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations would not comment on the relations between the two countries.

A Senate Republican wants federal funding revoked from Yale for a forthcoming speech from a controversial streamer who once called for him to be «killed.»

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blasted an upcoming event at the Ivy League university featuring Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, who has become a flashpoint for Democrats and fodder for conservatives because of his views and alignment with the far-left of the party.

Piker, who has come under fire for his previous comments that «America deserved 9/11» and for excusing sexual violence committed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, is set to appear at the Yale Political Union for an event dubbed «Resolved: End the American Empire» Tuesday.

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«This is WILD,» Scott said on X. «I spoke at the Yale Political Union last year on why we need to buy made in America products. Now, they are hosting a guy who said I should be killed.»

«Yale receives billions from the federal government — President Trump and Congress need to IMMEDIATELY revoke it,» he continued. «An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers.»

The Yale Political Union did not respond to a request for comment on Scott’s push to nix funding for the university.

Scott and Piker have had a run-in, indirectly, before.

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Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701.  (Fox News)

When Republicans were crafting President Donald Trump’s «big, beautiful bill» in 2025, Piker said during a stream — in reaction to comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that Republicans were targeting Medicaid fraud — that Scott should be killed.

«The reason why I’m saying, if you cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott is because — and not make him a prominent part of the Republican Party — is because he, to this day, is still also known as committing the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history,» Piker said.

At the time, Republicans were trying to include several provisions in the budget reconciliation process that they pitched as reforms to Medicaid designed to cut costs and root out fraud in the system.

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

A provider rate crackdown; denying states Medicaid funding for having illegal immigrants on the benefit rolls; preventing illegal immigrants from participating in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and preventing Medicaid and CHIP funding from going toward gender-affirming care were all on the table.

However, those provisions were gutted from the bill for not complying with the strict guardrails that dictate the reconciliation process. Still, Republicans were able to include stringent work requirements for the healthcare program.

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Scott’s office didn’t comment on Piker’s Medicare fraud accusation but told Fox News Digital that «no Democrat elected official calls this guy out and the press seems to give all the Democrats a pass for actively campaigning with him.»

Piker’s management team and Yale did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Horas después de que Estados Unidos e Irán acordaran un alto al fuego –lo que puso fin a la amenaza inmediata de ataques aéreos con la que los iraníes han convivido durante casi seis semanas–, algunos iraníes lidiaban con una confusa mezcla de emociones: alivio, conmoción y presentimiento.

“En estos momentos, parece una especie de limbo: no sé cómo acabará, pero la guerra iba en direcciones que me parecían aterradoras”, dijo el miércoles Iraj, residente en Teherán. “Solo sé que hoy me siento mejor que ayer”.

Cuando se le preguntó qué le parecía el alto al fuego, Mohammad, quien también vive en Teherán, dijo que no estaba contento porque, según dio entender, el gobierno autoritario de Irán seguía en funciones. “Pero no quería que la guerra llegara a un punto en que perjudicara gravemente la vida de todos nosotros”, dijo. “Me preocupa que la situación económica y cultural de la sociedad empeore”.

Comunicándose a través de mensajes de texto y notas de voz, enviados durante un corte de internet en curso, los iraníes reflexionaron sobre lo que les habían hecho pasar y a lo que podrían enfrentarse a continuación. Al igual que Mohammad e Iraj, todos pidieron ser identificados solo por su nombre de pila o no ser identificados en absoluto, por temor a represalias del gobierno.

“La gente está conmocionada, mirándose unos a otros con incredulidad”, dijo Maryam, una empleada de banca de 43 años de Teherán, quien dijo que creía que la guerra se reanudaría en dos semanas. “La gente está agotada y ansiosa”.

Muchos expresaron su preocupación por la ruina económica del país. Se han destruido escuelas, hospitales, viviendas, puentes y carreteras, así como importantes empresas que empleaban a decenas de miles de personas y eran el combustible de la economía nacional de Irán.

“Los precios se han disparado”, dijo Maryam. “Hoy fui a comprar conservas y el tendero me aconsejó que me abasteciera. ‘Pronto subirán un 40 por ciento’, me dijo”.

A Iraj le preocupaba que los agravios populares, que dieron lugar a una oleada de protestas en enero, volvieran a acumularse pronto ante la falta de acción del gobierno para atender esas quejas. “Seguimos sin disponer de mecanismos adecuados para protestar, y hay mucha gente descontenta”, dijo.

Pero dijo que nunca le habían gustado Estados Unidos e Israel, y que seguía pensando lo mismo. “Espero que otras personas también lleguen a comprender que no son salvadores”, afirmó.

Los iraníes contrarios al gobierno dijeron que estaban consternados de que este hubiera sobrevivido, a pesar de la muerte de sus principales dirigentes y de las declaraciones de dirigentes estadounidenses e israelíes, al principio de la guerra, de que querían un cambio político drástico en Irán.

En las semanas anteriores al comienzo de los bombardeos, algunos iraníes habían expresado su esperanza de que la intervención extranjera condujera al derrocamiento del régimen.

Varias personas contactadas el miércoles dijeron que temían que, en las semanas y meses venideros, el gobierno ejerciera su poder en el país para reafirmar su autoridad. En los últimos días, Irán ha llevado a cabo una serie de ejecuciones de personas que habían sido detenidas durante las protestas de enero. La semana pasada fue detenido un destacado abogado de derechos humanos, y se ha detenido a decenas de personas, algunas de ellas por enviar información a medios de comunicación extranjeros.

En los días previos al alto al fuego, la guerra había trastocado la capacidad de los iraníes para planificar sus vidas. Era difícil encontrar somníferos y ansiolíticos, según declaró Mehrshad, de 41 años, empresario de Teherán, en una entrevista realizada a finales de marzo.

“En Teherán, la gente está sufriendo demasiado”, dijo. “Psicológicamente, muchos se encuentran en un lugar muy oscuro. Incluso quien tenía grandes esperanzas políticas las está perdiendo”.

Además, las milicias progubernamentales armadas han establecido puestos de control en las calles de Teherán, dijo Mehrshad, lo que ha creado “una atmósfera de miedo”.

Él y otros dos iraníes describieron concentraciones callejeras regulares e informales a favor del régimen en Teherán y otras ciudades durante la guerra, realizadas a menudo por la noche. Los partidarios del gobierno ondeaban banderas, dijo, gritaban eslóganes como “Dios es grande, Jameneí es el líder” y emitían cánticos religiosos por los altavoces.

Los tres interpretaron las manifestaciones como una demostración de fuerza, destinada a asustar a la gente para que no aprovechara el caos bélico para protestar en las calles, como habían hecho grandes multitudes de iraníes hace solo tres meses.

“El alto al fuego se anunció de forma que parecía que la gente se quedaba sola, enfrentándose sola a un régimen represivo”, dijo Mojtaba, médico de 40 años que vive en el noreste del país. “La gente corriente está muy preocupada por el futuro y tiene menos esperanzas de cambio que antes de que empezara la guerra”.

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Mostafa, ingeniero informático que vive en Rasht, dijo que los habitantes de las zonas que habían sufrido bombardeos diarios estaban contentos con el alto al fuego. Muchos se sentían aliviados de que no les cortaran el agua, la electricidad y el gas, dijo, dadas las amenazas del presidente Donald Trump a las infraestructuras iraníes.

“La cuestión, sin embargo, es que la República Islámica sigue en el poder”, dijo Mostafa, y añadió que pensaba que el gobierno utilizaría fondos públicos para reconstruir su arsenal de misiles.

Para muchos habitantes de Teherán, las últimas semanas de guerra han supuesto una reducción de sus mundos y prioridades. Empezaron a permanecer más tiempo en casa, dedicando horas al día y valiosos fondos a intentar sortear el cierre de internet, y a comprobar cómo se encontraban sus amigos y familiares tras los ataques. Las explosiones nocturnas les destrozaban el sueño.

Un hombre de unos 20 años que vive en Teherán describió su reciente día a día: luchando durante horas para encontrar una conexión a internet, siendo detenido en los controles callejeros para registrar su coche, teléfono y pertenencias personales, y por la noche despertándose con frecuencia cuando toda su casa temblaba a causa de las explosiones cercanas.

Dijo que, meses atrás, había apoyado la idea de una intervención militar extranjera en Irán, motivado por la desesperación ante el estado del país. Pero recientemente había llegado a la conclusión de que la guerra se había salido de control.

Con el alto al fuego en vigor, dijo que pensaba aprovechar la estabilidad que pudiera aportar para hacer planes para abandonar el país. Y, añadió, no tenía pensado mirar atrás.

*Por Yeganeh Torbati, corresponsal en Irán para el Times.