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Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow was in Doha to oversee the opening of his country’s embassy, some 27 years after diplomatic relations were established between the two gas-rich countries and nine years after Qatar opened its embassy in Ashgabat.

The UAE has withdrawn from the race to hold the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 2026 and instead thrown its support behind Qatar’s bid.

Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states are reshaping their regional outlook, as transactional relationships replace some of the more ideologically-driven approaches taken since the 2011 Arab Spring. Former outcasts led by Iran and Syria are being welcomed into Gulf palaces once again, at least in part due to concerns the US can no longer provide a trusted security umbrella. In this rapidly changing environment, Iran could yet emerge as a significant new market for GCC investors.

Qatar's former finance minister Ali Al-Emadi and several other unnamed individuals were referred to the Criminal Court, following an investigation by the Public Prosecution. They face charges including bribery, appropriation of public money, abuse of office, abuse of power, damage to public money and money laundering.

In a sign of shifting regional alignments, Qatar is said to have revised its previous backing for the Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood or MB)-affiliated Ennahda party, opening the prospect of much-needed funds coming to Tunis from a source that has been missing in recent years, having previously been Tunisia’s second largest investor after France.

The Qatar Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) launched its coastal missile defence system at the Umm Al-Houl naval base late February. In September 2016, Qatar signed a deal with European defence group MBDA for a coastal defence system using the extended range version of the Marte missile and Exocet MM40 Block 3 missile.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani criticised delays in sending aid to Syria, following the devastating earthquake which hit the country and neighbouring Turkey.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani named foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani as prime minister in March, following the resignation of Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Bin Abdelaziz Al-Thani, who had been premier since January 2020. Tamim’s youngest full-brother Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Thani  was named interior minister, a position Khalid Bin Khalifa had also held.

Labelled by the British press as a ‘billionaire banker’, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani was born in April 1982 into a family that accrued almost unimaginable wealth, as the Qatari economy grew from an all but impoverished desert peninsula into a global-scale gas giant. His father, former prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani (HBJ), played an instrumental role in that process.

Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani’s emergence as a bidder to buy Manchester United FC has thrust the banker into the global limelight, while also posing questions about the balance of power and wealth in the opaque world of Qatari politics, which his father Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim (HBJ) dominated for so many years.

A concerted effort to put relations between Bahrain and Qatar on a more normal footing is under way, signalled by a meeting between their foreign ministers at the Gulf Co-operation Council headquarters in Riyadh in February.

Gulf countries have despatched search and rescue teams, medical equipment, temporary housing and other relief supplies to Turkey and Syria in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit in the early hours of 6 February. Qatar and the UAE were among the first to respond; flights left from Kuwait the following day. Aid has also been forthcoming from Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Qatar’s foreign affairs minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani travelled to Tehran on 29 January, to pass on a message from the United States about the moribund 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

With signs of improved relations between Bahrain and Qatar on the cards, GSN looks back through the archives at the fluctuating relationship between the too often feuding neighbours.

QatarEnergy has bought a 30% stake in two offshore blocks in Lebanon in an agreement with France's TotalEnergies and Italian major Eni.