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Regional and international leaders have descended on Abu Dhabi in the days since the death of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan was announced on 13 May, both to offer condolences and to congratulate Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ) who has moved from being the country’s de facto leader to formally becoming its president.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov flew into Muscat on 10 May, where he met his counterpart Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi and Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said. Neither his talks in Oman, nor a preceding visit to Algeria, had been publicised in advance. Bilateral ties and the Ukraine war were at the centre of the discussions, but the prospects for a revived Iran nuclear agreement will have been hard to ignore.

Risk Management Report: International politics and economics. Breakeven prices: Oil prices have remained high in the shadow of the Ukraine war, with the cost of a barrel well above $100 through much of March and April. This means that most Gulf states are in a position to post budget surpluses this year.

Oman has used its good offices to secure the release of more than a dozen foreign nationals in Yemen, including crew members of the UAE-flagged cargo ship Rwabee, which was captured by Houthi rebels in January.

Oman’s Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayan) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with New York-based H2 Industries to develop a $1.4bn waste-to-hydrogen plant at an unspecified coastal location.

Chinese defence minister General Wei Fenghe made a brief tour of the Gulf in April, starting with a visit to Tehran on 27 April. He held talks on military cooperation and other matters with defence and armed forces logistics minister Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani and other senior officials.

Muscat expects to launch a personal income tax in the first half of 2023, according to an unnamed official at the National Programme for Fiscal Balance cited by Al-Monitor on 22 April.

A fifth round of talks between Saudi and Iranian officials was held at Baghdad International Airport on 21 April, after a seven-month hiatus. The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the atmosphere as positive.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said’s desire to improve the efficiency of the government machine was signalled early on in his rule, with a decree reshaping the Council of Ministers (cabinet) and reducing the number of ministries in August 2020.

GSN provides profiles for three of the key figures in Oman’s ruling family: Sayyid Shihab Bin Tariq Al-Said, Sayyid Taimur Bin Assad Bin Tariq Al-Said and Sayyid Badr Bin Hamad Bin Hamood Al-Busaidi.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said has long maintained close links to the Omani business elite, but his own commercial career did not begin well.

In his first years in power, Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq has had to establish his legitimacy and cope with fiscal pressures and the challenge of Covid-19, but with reforms bedding in and oil prices rising, the prospects for Oman look brighter than for some time. GSN analyses the trends since Sultan Qaboos’ death and profiles some of the key players in contemporary Oman.

Budget balances remain difficult, but Sultan Haitham’s efforts to cope with fiscal pressures, Covid-19 and other economic challenges have helped an under-pressure economy to make some progress over the past year.

Oman's Ministry of Energy and Minerals has invited bids on four mining blocks for potash and associated commodities.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said’s son Sayyid Bilarab Bin Haitham has made an unspecified contribution to the Fak Kurbah initiative, which offers help to Omanis imprisoned for being unable to pay their debts.