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The government has set itself the challenging target of achieving fiscal stability by 2024, as set out in a new Medium-Term Fiscal Plan for 2020-24, in a further sign of reform momentum under Sultan Haitham.

Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s government is under extreme economic, as well as political, pressure, led by the demands of maintaining bloated state sector budgets, which are central to Iraq’s political patronage machine; current spending has inflated to some $6bn-7bn/month to keep ministries operating and pay government salaries and pensions. This is far more than revenues will provide, as recognised by a borrowing law which would allow the government to draw $3bn/month from Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) reserves.

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

In a pair of royal orders issued early February, Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdulaziz removed Fahd Bin Abdullah Bin Abdullatif Al-Mubarak from his position as governor of the Saudi Central Bank (Sama), replacing him with Ayman Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Sayari.

An attack by suspected Israeli drones appeared to cause relatively minor damage to a military base in the central city of Isfahan late January. Iranian officials described the facility as a workshop, but did not give further details of its function.

The Saudi Fund for Development has agreed to inject $320m into a joint project to build the infrastructure to support a new special economic zone (SEZ) in Oman’s Al-Dhahirah governorate.

Control of the Asir region has fluctuated between different groups over the centuries. By the 1830s, the Al-Ayed dynasty was in control, until the area was captured by the Ottomans in the late 1860s. Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdelaziz (Ibn Saud) brought Asir under his direct rule in the early 1920s.

A hydrocarbons law in Iraq is in the offing, which could provide a stable revenue-sharing platform for years to come, but big obstacles remain to be resolved, leaving Iraqi Kurds in political and financial limbo, while the Kurdish regional oil industry stutters even as big gas developments are being promoted.

Kuwait has all but left behind its former status as a pre-eminent hub of regional diplomacy, as the leadership is widely perceived to have walked away from its role as mediator in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and its neighbours. Concerned by this apparent inaction on the regional stage, GSN has been asking: why has Kuwait apparently retired from playing such a significant diplomatic role?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (Nedsa) has been converting another container ship to naval use. The 36,000t Shahid Bagheri has been pictured getting a flight deck similar to the Shahid Mahdavi, which was seen anchored off Bandar Abbas in mid-February.

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.

Even while Iranian diplomatic efforts are focused on talks with global powers to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the nuclear deal whose revival would significantly improve the economic outlook – the domestic situation remains fragile.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani removed Mustafa Ghalib Makhif as governor of the Central Bank of Iraq on 23 January, following a 7% fall in the value of the dinar over the past two months. Makhif had held the job since 2020. He has been succeeded by Ali Mohsen Al-Allaq.

The United Kingdom has denied that Saudi Arabia is set to join a multinational initiative to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet, following a claim by Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman.

UAE state-owned defence conglomerate Edge Group dominated the contract awards at the latest running of the International Defence Exhibition (Idex) and Naval Defence Exhibition (Navdex) in Abu Dhabi in February.