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Iran has recalled its ambassador to Sweden, after a Swedish court sentenced former Iranian prosecutor Hamid Nouri to life in prison for the mass execution and torture of political prisoners at Gohardasht prison in the late 1980s.

A key mediator, Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein, has said his Iranian and Saudi counterparts will soon meet in Baghdad for the highest-level public meeting between Tehran and Riyadh following five rounds of talks between their officials.

The UAE and Kuwait will soon be sending ambassadors back to Tehran, for the first time since early 2016.

Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) commander Rear Admiral Saif Bin Nasser Al-Rahbi travelled to Tehran for talks with his Iranian counterparts including Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces (Artesh) chief of staff General Mohammad Hossein Baqer.

Iranian and Russian officials confirmed that President Vladimir Putin would visit Tehran on 19 July for three-way talks also involving Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Leaders from across the Arab Gulf states and Egypt have been travelling around the region to heal fractures and head off the perceived threat from Iran’s nuclear ambitions, amid speculation that more GCC member states could move towards normalisation with Israel when US President Joe Biden comes to the region.

Iran has submitted an application to join the group of five major emerging economies –Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – known as the Brics.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Tehran on 22 June, for talks with President Ebrahim Raeisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, with sanctions, Syria and the consequences of the Ukraine war all on the agenda.

The head of intelligence of Iran’s IRGC Hossein Taeb has been replaced after 13 years in post, with counter-intelligence chief Brigadier General Mohammad Kazzemi taking over. The change comes after a series of mysterious deaths of IRGC personnel and a recent drone attack on a military site near Tehran.

A senior Vitol Group executive said the United States might turn a blind eye to increased Iranian oil sales – even if a new nuclear deals fails to emerge – in a bid to lower crude prices.

The United States is reportedly drawing up plans for a defence co-operation agreement between Israel and the six Gulf Co-operation Council states, as well as Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, to counter the perceived threat from Iran.

Amid growing concerns that Iran is getting ever closer to a nuclear weapons capability, there are hints that Saudi Arabia and the UAE might be making fresh preparations for their own access to atomic weapons, with Pakistan seen as the key enabler. There are many reasons for them not to move ahead on this track, but that does not necessarily mean plans won’t progress, given distrust of US security guarantees, the perpetual Iranian standoff and the monarchies’ own ambitions to project regional power.

Muscat and Tehran have revived long-discussed plans for a gas pipeline to deliver Iranian gas to Oman. A fresh commitment to the project was made by Iranian petroleum minister Javad Owji during a recent visit to the sultanate.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy detained Greek tankers the Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon in the Gulf late May, in apparent retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian tanker in April.

The collapse of the ten-storey Metropol building in Abadan, Khuzestan province, on 23 May has given added momentum to protests around Iran. Crowds booed Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s envoy Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir when he visited the rescue scene on 29 May.