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Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani's government has launched Iraq down a perilous fiscal path, with an extravagant three-year budget for 2023-25 which gained Council of Representatives (Majlis an-Nuwwab or parliament) approval.

As presidential elections approach, on 18 June, attention will grow on which personality and faction succeeds Hassan Rouhani, head of government since 2013. But the most critical variable in Iran’s highly controlled democracy won’t change: the temporal power and (often very pragmatic) spiritual guidance of Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The recent flurry of senior appointments by Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, including the naming of his brother Sheikh Mansour as federal vice president, highlights the extent to which Abu Dhabi controls all the main levers of power in the UAE – and its competition with Dubai for commercial, as well as political, dominance.

Iranians have been asked to come out in force to vote in elections to the Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (parliament) and Majlis-e Khobregân-e Rahbari (Assembly of Experts) on 1 March.