Live: West Asia crisis deepens as Trump relies on economic pressure against Iran

Over 25 countries, incorporating France, Canada, and the United Kingdom, issued a joint statement yesterday criticizing the Iranian administration's deployment of capital punishment, alleging that the regime is executing demonstrators to suppress opposition. Accompanied by the EU's chief diplomat, the coalition denounced in the firmest possible manner the ongoing executions of demonstrators and the application of death sentences by Tehran. The joint declaration emphasized that utilizing capital punishment to quell opposition, terrorize local populations, and penalize citizens for exercising basic human rights can under no circumstances be justified.

US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that American forces hold control over the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and intend to retain that position. In a post on Truth Social, Trump declared that the US exercises absolute authority over the Strait of Hormuz and expressed confidence that this control would continue. He added that their naval containment is widely being referred to as a "wall of steel" against which Iran is completely powerless.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam yesterday denounced Israel's "systematic destruction" across southern Lebanon as a breach of global legal standards, coinciding with remarks from Israel's Defence Minister that military forces were demolishing all homes in the area. Salam highlighted that Israeli strikes, raids, demolitions, and the planned destruction of residences, public infrastructure, official buildings, and religious sites constitute a grave infringement of international and humanitarian legal norms. He asserted in an official statement that labeling entire villages and towns as military sites defies logic and provides no valid justification for razing them, uprooting civilians, and blocking their return home.