Trump tells Europe to ‘get your own oil’ as Iran conflict fuels shortages
President Trump has ramped up efforts to pressure Iran by coordinating joint military strikes with Israel, focusing on nuclear facilities in Isfahan. In a newly released video, the attacks are prominently featured as part of the campaign against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized the necessity for Iran to alter its conduct. Meanwhile, Jennifer Runyan, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge in Detroit, disclosed that a recent attack on a Michigan synagogue, dated March 12, was motivated by Hezbollah. This revelation has heightened concerns about domestic terrorism, particularly as debates over Department of Homeland Security funding continue.
As Iran finds itself increasingly isolated from its Gulf neighbors, it appears to be strengthening alliances elsewhere. Reports indicate that Tehran has been cultivating closer relations with the Republic of Georgia in the South Caucasus region.
Historically viewed as a prospective candidate for the European Union and NATO membership, the former Soviet republic of Georgia seems to be aligning more closely with Iran. Giorgi Kandelaki, a former member of the Georgian Parliament, explained to Fox News Digital that Iran has established a significant influence in Georgia. This includes operations linked to entities sanctioned by the U.S. for extremist connections, often perceived in Washington as fronts for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In a related development, an anti-war protestor in London carried an Iranian flag during a demonstration organized by the Stop the War Coalition. The march, held on March 7, 2026, called for an end to hostilities amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli tensions with Iran. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Reuters)
An anti-war activist holds an Iranian flag during a march organized by Stop the War Coalition, calling for an end to hostilities amid the U.S.-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 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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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