Trade between Russia and Iran grew by more than 21 per cent in 2025, with positive growth continuing in the first seven months of 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin said this during a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Turkmenbashi, where the leaders discussed bilateral cooperation under their strategic partnership agreement.

He said the agreement, signed in early 2025, provided a framework for expanding cooperation across various sectors and strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

Putin also highlighted growing humanitarian ties, including cultural exchanges and other joint activities organised in both countries.

Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to strengthening relations with Russia, saying cooperation in trade, economic and humanitarian affairs was progressing steadily.

He said both countries had the political will to advance their partnership under the strategic agreement and expressed confidence in expanding cooperation across multiple sectors.

The meeting followed their recent talks in Bishkek during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, underscoring continued high-level engagement between the two countries.

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Commodity vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to three ships on Wednesday, down from 12 the previous day and below the 10-day average of about 17.

Preliminary ship-tracking data showed the figures excluded vessels that may have transited the waterway with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders switched off to avoid detection.

According to Kpler shipping data, an empty Supramax dry bulk vessel entered the strait through the Iranian route, while an empty petroleum product tanker entered through a dark route.

A Panamax tanker exited the waterway using a dark route, the data showed.

Vessel traffic declined as the Gulf conflict intensified, with Saudi Arabian warplanes attacking Yemen and Houthi fighters launching drones and missiles at Saudi cities.

The Iran-backed Houthis’ advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, attacks on Saudi Arabia and damage to the kingdom’s East-West oil pipeline have increased risks to global oil supplies.

Meanwhile, vessel crossings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea fell to 21 on Wednesday, from 24 vessels a day earlier.

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The move underscores the growing concern over virtually unrestricted social media consumption with increasing call for individuals take control of what they are exposed to on digital platforms.

Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells said the proposed digital duty of care laws would provide basic safety protections for Australians using social media platforms according to a BBC report.

Wells, who led the government’s world-first social media ban for under-16s introduced last year, said technology companies would be required to give users greater control over what they see online.

She said platforms operated by technology giants such as Meta, Google and TikTok could face substantial penalties if they failed to provide an option for users to turn off algorithmically curated feeds.

“We want to give Australians more choice over what they see on their social media feeds,” Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“The government recognises that many Australians find algorithms useful because they help users discover content that matches their interests, including local businesses and community activities.

She, however, said users should be given the freedom to decide whether they wanted algorithmically selected content.

“A lot of Australians will want to choose the algorithm. But we think that big tech should offer them the choice in the first place and they should respect that choice,” the BBC reported quoted her as saying.

Wells said technology companies should not be treated as a “protected species”, adding that they should be subject to basic safety standards like other industries.

She said the proposed legislation would be developed with expert advice, including whether users should be required to opt in or opt out of algorithm-driven social media feeds.

The government’s approach means that legislation could be introduced before all the technical details of implementation are fully determined, similar to its approach to the under-16 social media ban.

Wells also acknowledged that no technology company had so far been fined for failing to enforce the existing social media restrictions.

This is in spite of research indicating that many under-16 users who were on the platforms before the ban remained active on them.

Wells rejected the criticism, saying the proposed measures were not designed to censor social media or restrict freedom of expression.

The minister said it was not about censorship as the proposal had attracted mixed reactions from opposition politicians, with some supporting the principle of giving users greater control over social media content.

“This isn’t about censorship. This is about identifying risks or making big tech identify the risks on their own platform and making big tech mitigate against those risks on their platform,” she said.

Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor, however, expressed strong reservations, describing the proposal as potentially amounting to government censorship.

Taylor said the government should instead focus on addressing loopholes in the existing social media ban before introducing additional regulations.

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Pazeshkian said this in a post on social media platform X, while highlighting Iran’s opposition to war.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been opposed to war and considered the preservation of the people’s interests and ensuring the (West Asia) region’s security to lie in refraining from warmongering,” Pezeshkian said.

He added, “However, just as it has courageously risen to defend against aggression up to this day, Iran will continue this resistance with strength until the aggressors are brought to complete regret.

“We will remain the guardian of the rights of the great Iranian people.”

On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the region, and tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

On June 18, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war in the region.

Under the MoU, they were scheduled to hold negotiations within a period of 60 days, which ended on Aug. 17, to reach a final agreement.

However, the talks’ fate remains unclear following the recent escalations between the two countries.

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“We do not seek war, and this is a clear message that we have so far conveyed to the world.

“However, we will never sit still in the face of aggressions and will give a decisive response to aggressors,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

Pezeshkian added that instability and unrest in the region were not in the interest of any country, saying that countries must make efforts to ensure security and development in their regions.

The president’s remarks came as the U.S. Central Command spokesperson Tim Hawkins said in a statement that U.S. forces on Sunday struck two launchers on Iran’s southern Larak Island.

Following the attack, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps said that some military personnel and civilians were killed or wounded in the attack, vowing that the strike would be responded to with “punishment for the aggressor”.

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Ships must comply with Iranian security regulations and coordinate their passage with relevant authorities, the mission said late on Tuesday.

The Strait of Hormuz has become a flashpoint in the current U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly attacked vessels in the waterway, effectively closing off a key shipping route for global oil and gas supplies.

The narrow passage between Iran and Oman is the only link between the Gulf and the world’s oceans.

It is regarded as one of the most important shipping routes globally, with around 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply normally passing through it.

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According to Israeli broadcaster N12, the draft includes commitments from Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons and to hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

U.S. news outlet Axios, citing a source with knowledge of the matter, reported that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told President Donald Trump that Iran had agreed on several key points, including giving up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

However, it remained unclear how Tehran would formally respond to the proposal, the New York Times reported.

Israel’s reaction, another party to the conflict, was also uncertain.

Trump has repeatedly said that Iran is eager to reach an agreement.

“We’re actually talking to the right people, and they want to make a deal so badly, you have no idea how badly they want to make a deal,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are also involved in the negotiations, Trump said.

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IAEA’s Director General, Rafael Grossi, in a statement on Monday, urged a return to diplomacy, given the “increasing risk to nuclear safety” in the region as the violent escalation in the Middle East entered a third day.

The violent was sparked by the bombing of Iran by Israel and the United States.

Grossi, noted that there was no indication that any of Iran’s nuclear installations, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Tehran Research Reactor and other nuclear fuel cycle facilities had been damaged.

Meanwhile at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Gulf States impacted by Iranian retaliatory strikes involving ballistic missiles and drones condemned attacks against their sovereignty and urged Tehran to stop all “hostile escalation” that could jeopardize regional stability.

To date, missile strikes have been reported in Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in addition to Israel, whose military responded to Hezbollah strikes from Lebanon on Monday.

There are indications that 550 civilians have been killed in Iran since the country came under attack on Saturday. Targets have included Tehran’s Gandhi Hospital which sustained damage on Sunday, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) said, citing reports.

“It serves as a reminder that all efforts must be taken to prevent health facilities from being caught up in the ongoing conflict.

Health facilities are protected under international humanitarian law,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus wrote in an online post.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in the Swiss city, Shahad Matar for the UAE alleged that Iranian attacks since February had killed three civilians and injured 58 more.

“This blatant and cowardly attack is a violent…blatant violation of our sovereignty, international law and UN Charter,” Shahad insisted.

Echoing those comments, Naser Abdullah Alhayen for Kuwait condemned Iranian missile attacks and affirmed the country’s right to defend its territory and people, in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter.

In response, Iran told the Human Rights Council that the country has continued to come under “indiscriminate and invasive” attack, a day after Tehran confirmed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a strike on the Supreme Leader’s compound in the capital.

“In recent days, schools have been bombed, hospitals subjected to indiscriminate attacks, civilian leaders including the spiritual and religious Supreme Leader, have been assassinated, and the headquarters of the Iranian Red Crescent, along with many other non-military buildings, have been destroyed,” Iran’s Ali Bahreini maintained.

Responding to reports that a primary school was hit on Saturday in Minab, southern Iran, Bahreini said that more than 160 schoolgirls had been killed.

“The ongoing unlawful military aggression against Iran exemplifies the dominance of raw power over the principles of human rights,” the Human Rights Council heard.

Earlier on Monday, Iran also issued a letter to countries attending the UN Conference on Disarmament meeting in Geneva on Monday, insisting on its right to self-defence “for as long as the aggression endures”.

All U.S. military “bases, facilities and assets” are now “legitimate targets” as a result of the “war of aggression”, the Iranian Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva insisted.

Back in Vienna, IAEA chief Grossi underscored the risk of a nuclear incident from the military escalation since Iran “and many other countries in the region that have been subjected to military attacks have operational nuclear power plants and nuclear research reactors”.

Addressing a special meeting of the IAEA Board in the Austrian capital, Grossi said that radiation levels had remained normal in countries bordering Iran since the bombing began.

And as the Israeli military began launching strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, Grossi urged “utmost restraint in all military operations”.

He noted that the UAE has four operating nuclear reactors while Jordan and Syria have operational nuclear research reactors.

“Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have also been attacked,” he said, stressing that they “all use nuclear applications of some sort or the other”.

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The reporters five of whom worked for the Al Jazeera media network were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza City on Sunday.

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said this at a news briefing on Monday in New York

“These latest killings highlight the extreme risks journalists continue to face when covering the ongoing war.

“The Secretary-General calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings.”

Dujarric pointed out that at least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began nearly three years ago.

“The Secretary-General underscores that journalists and media workers must be respected; they must be protected and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment,” he said.

Meanwhile, the number of children in Gaza who have died from malnutrition since October 2023 has surpassed 100, according to the Gazan health authorities, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said in an update.

More than a third of the population is not eating for days at a time, according to the UN World Food Population (WFP). Furthermore, acute malnutrition is spiking, with over 300,000 children at severe risk.

This comes amidst a recent warning by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that a mere 1.5 per cent of cropland in the enclave remains both accessible and undamaged, “signaling a near-total collapse of the local production of food.”

On the aid front, the UN and its partners collected food and hygiene kits from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem border crossing on Wednesday.

“However, supplies were offloaded directly from these trucks before reaching their destination, given the extreme desperation pervasive in Gaza today,” OCHA said.

The agency stressed that people there “need a predictable lifeline not a trickle of aid so they do not feel they need to take desperate measures to survive.”

WFP said that just to cover basic humanitarian food assistance needs, more than 62,000 metric tonnes are required to enter Gaza every month, and so far, humanitarians have not been permitted to bring in enough supplies to support the population.

Humanitarians also collected fuel from the Kerem Shalom crossing on Wednesday.

Israel is allowing, on average, the entry of about 150,000 litres of fuel daily, which is still far below the minimum required. As a result, life-saving operations continue to be at risk.

The Palestine Civil Defence organisation has warned that more than half of their ambulances have stopped operating across Gaza due to the shortage of both fuel and spare parts.

“Israeli authorities must allow aid to enter through all crossings and via all available corridors so that humanitarians can deliver at scale, in a safe and dignified manner to reach the most vulnerable, including women,children and older people,” OCHA said.

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