Iran is facing intensifying diplomatic and economic pressure on multiple fronts today, as G7 finance ministers gathered in Paris called for tighter coordination on sanctions, Israeli naval forces intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla near Cyprus, and a new Amnesty International report laid bare the scale of executions inside the country.
At the G7 finance ministers’ meeting in Paris, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on allied nations to align behind a coordinated sanctions regime aimed at cutting off ‘Iran’s war machine’. The push for G7 unity on Iran comes days after President Donald Trump’s summit in Beijing, where Washington and Beijing found rare common ground agreeing that Iran should not be able to restrict passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway critical to global energy supplies.
Amnesty International released figures showing that Iran carried out at least 2159 in 2025 ,more than double the figure for 2024, and the highest recorded in the country since 1981. The total pushed global executions to their highest level in over four decades. Amnesty said Iranian authorities have increasingly weaponised the death penalty as a tool of political repression, with the pace accelerating sharply after the outbreak of the war against Israel and the United States. Amnesty and other rights groups note that Iran has continued stepping up executions into 2026, on charges linked to protests and membership of banned groups.
Israeli naval forces today also intercepted a new Gaza-bound aid flotilla after it set sail from Turkey, with the operation carried out in international waters off Cyprus. Flotilla organisers described it as an attack on unarmed civilian boats outside Israel’s jurisdiction, while prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the navy, saying they had stopped the ships with, in his words, less noise than the organisers intended. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the interception, calling it an act of piracy. Israel’s foreign ministry defended the operation, saying the flotilla was aimed at serving Hamas and obstructing progress on President Trump’s Gaza peace plan. It also disputed claims of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying more than one-and-a-half million tonnes of aid had entered the territory since October.
