The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Monday urged Iran to relinquish control of three Persian Gulf islands which it has held since 1971 following Britain’s withdrawal from the region.
“Any decisions, practices, or actions taken by Iran on the three islands are null and void and do not alter the historical and legal facts that confirm the UAE’s right of sovereignty,” the GCC said in a final statement after its 165th ministerial council session in Kuwait.
The bloc added that the islands are “an indivisible part of UAE territory.”
The three islands — Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa — have been in dispute since the British withdrew their armed forces in 1971 and Iran's last Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi sent the Iranian navy to secure them.
Iranian forces remain on the islands, with only Abu Musa having a civilian population which is less than two thousand.
Historical claims
The Council called on Tehran to respond to Abu Dhabi’s efforts to resolve the issue “through direct negotiations or by referring the matter to the International Court of Justice.”
Iran maintains that the islands have been an intrinsic part of its sovereign territory, asserting that it has never ceded ownership.
The UAE counters that throughout the 19th century, the islands were under the jurisdiction of the Qasimi sheikhs and that their claim was transferred to the UAE upon its establishment in 1971.
Nuclear standoff
The GCC also addressed Iran’s nuclear program, saying any negotiations on this matter should address the council members' concerns as well.
“The Council expressed the GCC states' readiness to cooperate and deal effectively with this file and stressed the necessity of their participation in all related regional and international negotiations, discussions and meetings,” the statement said.
The GCC called on Iran to pursue a constructive cooperation framework with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as adherence to all relevant international agreements.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, also known as E3 countries, triggered the 30-day process of UN snapback sanctions last week, calling on Iran to find a diplomatic solution to resolve the disputes.
The three European countries said Iran must resume nuclear talks with the United States, clarify the status of its highly enriched uranium stockpile and restore access to IAEA inspectors.
Ebrahim Azizi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Iranian border guards reported seeing drones crossing from Azerbaijani territory.
“Border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran explicitly said that the Zionist regime used Azerbaijan’s border to infiltrate drones into Iran,” Azizi during an interview with state media.
He added that the matter had been raised by Iran’s presidency and foreign ministry with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had requested documentation.
“Now, whether we provide documents is one issue, but the reality itself is undeniable. Our border guards clearly said: ‘We were there and with our own eyes we saw that Israeli drones entered Iran from Azerbaijani soil,’” Azizi said.
The comments follow a phone call in late June in which Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian urged Aliyev to investigate reports that Israeli drones and micro-UAVs had entered Iran from Azerbaijan during the conflict.
According to Iran’s readout of the call, Aliyev denied that Azerbaijan had allowed its territory to be used in attacks against Iran, describing such actions as a “red line.”
Iran has long voiced unease about what it sees as Israel’s security and intelligence presence in Azerbaijan.
In February, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said countries “should take their neighbors’ sensitivities into consideration,” expressing concern over Israel’s activities in the South Caucasus state.
Azerbaijan, for its part, has consistently rejected allegations of hosting Israeli military bases or permitting its territory to be used against Iran. Its officials have occasionally accused Iranian clerics and state-linked media of spreading inflammatory rhetoric.
In January, Azerbaijan summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baku to protest alleged anti-Azerbaijan content in Iranian outlets.
Despite recurring flare-ups, Tehran and Baku have maintained cooperation in areas such as cross-border trade, energy swaps, and infrastructure projects, including the Rasht-Astara railway.
But mistrust persists, particularly over the Zangezur Corridor linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan through Armenian territory, a project Iran fears could undermine its regional influence.
A US-brokered peace deal last month between Armenia and Azerbaijan granted Washington leasing rights to develop the Zangezur transit corridor, now renamed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).
While Iranian officials continue to accuse Baku of tacit collaboration with Israel, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Israel said in 2023 that his country “would not let Israel’s military use Azerbaijan as a base for a possible attack against Iran.”
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the announcement in a prerecorded message aired on al-Masirah, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel.
Maritime security firm Ambrey said the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, owned by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, fits the Houthis’ targeting profile “as the vessel is publicly Israeli owned”.
The Houthis started attacking vessels in the Red Sea region in November 2023. The group has since launched scores of drones and missiles towards Israel in addition to targeting around 100 international ships, resulting in the sinking of four vessels and the deaths of at least eight mariners, according to the Associated Press figures.
The attack in the crucial shipping route comes just hours after the Yemeni militia raided offices of the UN’s food, health and children’s agencies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at least 11 employees, as the rebels tightened security across Sana’a after the Israeli killing of their prime minister and several cabinet members.
Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy for Yemen, said on Sunday: “I strongly condemn the new wave of arbitrary detentions of UN personnel today in Sana’a and Hodeidah … as well as the forced entry into UN premises and seizure of UN property.”
He demanded that they be “immediately and unconditionally” released.
The Houthis have previously detained dozens of UN workers in Yemen and others linked to aid groups, leading the UN to suspend its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the rebels detained eight UN staff members in January.
The raids on Sunday followed the killing of the Houthi prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, and several of his cabinet members in an Israeli strike on Thursday, which the group said will be met with retaliatory action.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that the response will be wider than simply its allies in Yemen, branding the killings a "war crime against humanity ... with full US support".
“It will ignite greater anger and expand the geography of resistance," the statement said.
The judiciary has accelerated death sentences since Israel struck the prison on June 23.
Human rights lawyers said the attack gave judges a pretext for vengeance.
“A spirit of vengeance has taken over the judiciary,” one Tehran lawyer, who asked not to be named, told the Times.
“A judge told me: ‘Our generals and officials have been killed, and we should take revenge.’ He didn’t even allow me to speak.”
Motahareh Gounei, a 28-year-old dental student arrested for criticizing the state, survived the bombing in Ward 209. “I thought, ‘This is it. I’m dead. I’ll be buried here,’” she said in a phone interview after being released on bail.
Rights groups say many of those now marked for execution were jailed for protest activity, not espionage, and their cases rest on confessions extracted under torture.
Asghar Jahangir, spokesperson for the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, announced on June 29 that in the Israeli attack on Evin Prison, 71 people were killed.
“The casualties included administrative staff, soldiers, inmates, family members who had come for visits or legal follow-ups, and neighbors living near the prison,” he said.
From ‘Evin University’ to collective punishment
Evin has long been notorious for torture yet also carried symbolic weight for the opposition. Political detainees staged hunger strikes, organized discussions and even confronted judges visiting the prison. It became known among activists as Evin University.
That fragile space was erased by the airstrike. The following day, authorities transferred 61 women to Qarchak, a facility notorious for disease and overcrowding.
“Since we were transferred to Qarchak, we’ve lost the right to work in workshops and to cover our living expenses. That means we can no longer buy groceries and are forced to eat the prison’s food, which is mostly plain rice,” one inmate said in a monitored call.
Gounei was later moved to an intelligence-run safe house. “Your name isn’t recorded anywhere,” she said. “My interrogator told me: ‘I’ll rape you and dump your body in the desert.’”
Rising executions
Iran Human Rights, an NGO, recorded 511 executions in the first five months of 2025, nearly double the same period last year. The judiciary has announced 700 arrests for alleged espionage during the war, vowing to show “no mercy.”
Male inmates from Evin have also faced brutality. About 500 transferred prisoners were returned in chains and beaten by riot police. Roughly 100 condemned prisoners were separated from the rest, including Mohammad-Bagher Bakhtiar, a 67-year-old former Revolutionary Guard commander turned dissident.
His son, Ali Reza, said: “Since the transfer to Evin, due to lack of access to medical staff, the full extent of the injuries to my father and other detainees is still unknown.”
Israel said its strikes on Evin aimed at guards and were designed to embolden the opposition. Officials accused Tehran of exploiting the attack to justify executions while presenting the war as a domestic victory.