The Republic of Georgia, once a robust U.S. ally, has transformed into an Iranian client state under the autocratic Georgian Dream Party, according to policy experts who spoke Thursday at the Hudson Institute. This dramatic shift in alliances has enabled Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to recruit Georgian intelligence assets who can freely move across Europe and even America to foment terror. While the relationship has been percolating for years with support from Georgian Dream's leadership, lawmakers and experts noted a troubling escalation during the U.S. war against Iran, when the once-staunch U.S. ally permitted Russia to use its airspace to airlift supplies into Tehran. The alliance has not only empowered Moscow but also supercharged an international Axis of Resistance led by Russia, China, and Iran. "Georgian Dream has helped Iran in the current war by allowing strategic Russian airlifters to transit its airspace en route to Iran, carrying supplies to help the Iranian regime and undermine President Trump," said House Foreign Affairs Committee member Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), who described the situation as a "Georgian nightmare." Georgia's sharp turn toward Iran poses an acute threat to American national security, Wilson and others said, pointing to significant IRGC recruitment campaigns across the Eastern European nation that once stood in lockstep with the West. Georgia, the Hudson Institute determined in a recent investigatory report, now "provides Iran a new strategic platform in Eurasia" that acts as a "fertile ground for intelligence recruitment and paramilitary mobilization." The national security threat does not stop at Europe's borders, according to Luke Coffey, a senior Hudson Institute fellow at its Center on Europe and Eurasia. "Georgian citizens can travel more easily to the United States, they can travel more easily in the Schengen zone in Europe," Coffey said. "This is why the Iranians are targeting these ethnic Azerbaijani Georgia citizens." This Shia ethnic group is deeply vulnerable to Iran's propaganda and is served in-country by a constellation of Tehran-backed social welfare groups that mainline the hardline regime's propaganda. In one notable case, Iran recruited a Georgian citizen to assassinate U.S.-based journalist Masih Alinejad for Alinejad's anti-regime work. "Iran has long seen this community as a strategic target," Hudson noted in its March report, and has established branches of its Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly and the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Mustafa International University inside Georgia. "Iran-linked charitable foundations not only provide social welfare but also help Iran enhance its influence, transfer resources, and expand its soft power." Al-Mustafa was designated as a terror outfit by President Donald Trump in 2020, during his first term in office, with the Treasury Department determining that the university clandestinely provides the IRGC and its Quds Force with the resources to conduct foreign "intelligence operations." Its presence in Georgia has grown substantially over the past decade, with support from the Georgian Dream party. "Al-Mustafa University has three campuses in Georgia, and you know, back in Iran, it's a serious enterprise" with an annual budget of $100 million, said former Georgian parliament member Giorgi Kandelaki, who coauthored the March report. In at least one case, an Al-Mustafa official was "exposed for masterminding an attempted murder of an Israeli ambassador in Mexico. So, these kind of people and this institution, the Al-Mustafa University has three campuses." Kandelaki noted that there are "confirmed cases" of Al-Mustafa outposts "being used for recruitment of individuals or operations against the U.S." Though Iran is not hiding its operations inside Georgia, "there's almost no awareness in Washington about what is going on between Tehran and Tbilisi and what Iran is doing there," said Hudson's Coffey. "The Georgian Dream needs to be on notice that of all U.S. presidential administrations this one is not going to tolerate the IRGC recruiting and running wild in their country." Published under: Iran , Iran War , IRGC , Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , National Security , Republic of Georgia
The Republic of Georgia, once a robust U.S. ally, has transformed into an Iranian client state under the autocratic Georgian Dream Party, according to policy experts who spoke Thursday at the Hudson Institute. This dramatic shift in alliances has enabled Tehran's Islamic Revoluti…
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International mediators have proposed a 10-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran, according to a senior Iranian official cited in reports. The measure is described as intended to reduce hostilities and allow renewed talks on a prior interim agreement.
Both sides are assessing next steps in the current regional security situation.
Reports indicate that a US-Iran ceasefire has broken down amid renewed fighting, with the potential impact of mediation efforts by Pakistan, Qatar, and Oman remaining unclear. Earlier diplomatic steps included a June memorandum of understanding between the parties for further negotiations and talks hosted in Geneva in February.
The summary also references Europe’s historical role in diplomacy, including the 1814-15 Congress of Vienna.
Donald Trump stated in a Fox News interview that his representatives had spoken with Iranian officials an hour earlier and that those officials wanted to make a deal to end the conflict, though he noted they had broken prior agreements and expressed uncertainty about whether one would be reached.
He added that people do not want to die and that Iran would need to proceed carefully to avoid further losses. The remarks come amid an ongoing US-Iran conflict that has involved casualties and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, with some social media users criticizing the repetition of similar statements.
Why the Iran-US ceasefire is falling apart Iran and the US have resumed fighting because they don’t see each other as ‘reliable negotiating partners’, says analyst Ali Vaez. Neither Iran nor the United States seems able to deliver a “knockout blow at an acceptable price” to the other side, and both know “they have no choice other than engaging in diplomacy”, but they’re not ready to make uncomfortable concessions, argues Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at International Crisis Group.
Vaez tells host Steve Clemons that Tehran and Washington are trying to “enforce their own interpretation” of the ceasefire agreement they signed last month. President Trump has become “frustrated” with diplomacy because he’s not seeing “the kind of quick results that he likes to see”, Vaez says.