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Iran's Labour Ministry director for social insurance Sajjad Padam was dismissed from his post after saying that the government "may have to sell off Kish and Qeshm islands and even oil assets in Khuzestan" in order to settle the country’s debts with China.

Iran released Frenchman Benjamin Briere and French/Irish national Bernard Phelan from prison, describing it as a goodwill gesture. But it executed Swedish-Iranian national Habib Chaab, drawing condemnation from the EU.

Iraq has extended a contract to import Iranian gas by a further five years, following talks in Baghdad between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani and visiting Iranian oil minister Javad Owji in May.

Iraq has been hosting reconciliation talks between Iranian and Egyptian officials which should lead to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations "in the near future".

Iran officially welcomed Syria’s return to the League of Arab States, but the eagerness with which Damascus is accepting the renewed Arab hospitality may be a cause for concern in Tehran, which has been one of the Assad regime’s few consistent supporters throughout the civil war.

The Iranian parliament voted to impeach industry, mine and trade minister Reza Fatemi Amin late April, a few weeks after education minister Yousef Nouri had resigned.

The Islamic Republic has largely suppressed the wave of protests that emerged in September after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, but the opaque political system remains under pressure, both from the Iranian public and from signs of internal division. The tensions point to a period of uncertainty ahead of the eventual succession to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene.

The attack on Iranian Assembly of Experts (Majles-e Khobregân-e Rahbari) member Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani Esbukolai late April brought to the fore the question of who might lead Iran in the future.

Iran - which has substantial ammunition production capability as a legacy of its 1980-88 war with Iraq - is reportedly sending ammunition to Russia across the Caspian Sea for use in its Ukraine war.

Turkey has agreed to host an Iranian interests section at its embassy in Tirana, some eight months after Tehran and Albania broke off diplomatic relations.

Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nedaja) forces took control of the Marshall Islands-registered tanker Advantage Sweet in the Gulf of Oman late April, while it was sailing from Kuwait to Houston, Texas.

An unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) air defence commander has been sentenced by a Tehran military court to 13 years in prison for their role in the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran in January 2018.

The Meraj-532 is the first Iranian drone known to be launched from a speeding vehicle, which means it does not need a rocket booster system for take-off. The weight saved appears to have been traded in for a larger warhead.

Iran’s education minister Yousef Nouri resigned and was replaced by Farhangian University president Reza Moradsahraei. Iranian media reports linked the move to an outcry over delayed salary payments to teachers, but it also comes amid a wave of alleged poisonings of schoolgirls around the country and ongoing protests against the country’s strict dress code.

Russian and Chinese vessels joined their Iranian counterparts in a naval exercise off Chah Bahar in the Gulf of Oman in mid-March. After two days of air defence and anti-hijacking drills, the exercise concluded with a fleet review on 19 March.