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An incident on 23 July in Syrian airspace involving a Mahan Air plane travelling from Tehran to Beirut and US military aircraft has become the latest bone of contention between Iran and the United States. Iran claimed that 12 passengers and crew had to be treated in a Beirut hospital due to injuries sustained when the plane was forced to make sudden movements to avoid the US jets.

Two Swedish nationals have been arrested in Iran, according to a report by the local Tasnim news agency in early July. The authorities claimed to have found a large quantity of synthetic narcotics in their possession. Their detention has been linked to that of Hamid Nouri, an Iranian public prosecutor arrested in Sweden last November.

French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was sentenced in mid-May to five years in jail by an Iranian court, after being convicted of endangering national security and propaganda against the state. France’s foreign affairs ministerYves Le Drian condemned the decision, saying it was “based on no serious information or established fact and is therefore political in nature.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) denounced the raising of the rainbow flag by the EU Advisory Mission and the UK and Canadian embassies in Baghdad on 17 May, to mark International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

Ambassador to Syria Turki Bin Mahmoud Bin Ali Al-Busaidi presented his credentials to Syrian foreign minister Walid Al-Muallim in Damascus in early October. Al-Busaidi was appointed on 9 March, in a wider reshuffle of envoys by Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said.

Foreign minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud was in Washington on 14 October for the launch of the first United States Saudi Arabia Strategic Dialogue, holding talks with secretary of state Mike Pompeo on bilateral security and economic ties.

The Belgian government has refused permission for the Grand Mosque of Brussels – for decades financed by Saudi Arabia – to be recognised and receive funding as a local faith community, after security services told federal justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne it had been infiltrated by ‘Moroccan spies’. “I cannot and will not accept that foreign regimes hijack Islam for ideological or political motives, try to call the shots here and prevent Muslims in our country from developing their own progressive Islam,” Van Quickenborne said.

Pakistan has appointed former Lieutenant General Bilal Akbar as its new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, replacing Raja Ali Ejaz who had been in Riyadh for the past two years. The decision means both countries have now appointed retired senior military officers as envoy; Saudi ambassador in Islamabad is Nawaf Bin Saeed Al-Maliki, a retired Rear Admiral in the Royal Saudi Navy.

Ethiopian authorities said they had foiled a plan to attack the UAE embassy in Addis Ababa. A 4 February Ethiopian Press Agency report cited a National Intelligence Security Service statement that said 15 people were arrested, and arms and explosives seized.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) named Majid Al-Usaimi as its first national ambassador from UAE on 25 January, with a remit to advocate for children’s rights in the country.

Mohamed Mahmoud Al-Khaja was sworn in as the first UAE ambassador to Israel, in a ceremony at Al-Watan Palace in Abu Dhabi on 14 February in front of federal vice president and prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and presidential affairs minister Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has secured aid commitments of $6bn from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, following his early April visits to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. The $3bn Saudi funding was announced following a 1 April meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at Al-Yamamah Palace. It is being provided via a new joint fund set up to promote private sector investments in Iraq.

Qatar and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea – one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producers and least tolerant polities – signed a joint statement to establish diplomatic relations on 9 April, in a ceremony at the headquarters of Qatar’s delegation to the United Nations.

The recent wave of diplomatic activity around the region continues to build up, with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud both embarking on multi-country tours since late April, while a number of United States delegations have been in the region.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on his arrival at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on 7 May. The visit appeared to be a clear effort to improve bilateral relations that have been strained since Saudi Arabia failed to offer much support to Pakistan when the Indian government decided to assert greater control over its share of the disputed Kashmir region in August 2019.