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Kuwait was the first country in region to enact serious efforts to deter the spread of coronavirus when, on 11 March, all travel except cargo flights was suspended and a public holiday was declared that closed all government offices. With its borders closed indefinitely, the Kuwaiti lockdown has continued ever since. Office closures are set to continue until 31 May at least. Virtually all businesses and government services, except select food markets, pharmacies and medical centres, are closed.

Bahrain has cancelled a visit by the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Méndez, the second time it has called off his trip at short notice. Méndez was due to be in Bahrain from 8 to 15 May but, on 22 April, was handed a letter that said the National Dialogue was taking longer than envisaged, and that his visit could damage its chances of success.

Azerbaijan’s capital Baku played host to another group of visiting Gulf officials on 18 March as a Saudi delegation led by energy, industry and mineral resources minister Khalid Al-Falih met their Russian counterparts to discuss oil production limits. All is not well in the alliance of convenience between members of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and other producers; Russia, the driving force alongside Saudi Arabia in the so far successful Opec+ initiative, has forced the cancelation of a meeting scheduled for April on whether to extend a previously-agreed deal to limit output.

The British-Omani military exercises Al-Shomoukh 2 and Saif Al Sarea 3 were still in full swing on land, sea and air as GSN went to press – a clear demonstration of international support for a sultanate that has long been seen as a maverick within the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The exercise is a sign for Muscat that it still has friends in high places – which is particularly important these days given the concerns that are bubbling up among the sultanate’s strategists, as well as analysts in Washington and elsewhere, about the intentions of its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.

On 8 October, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi optimistically said the question of turning Yemen into a federal state – which has been a major stumbling block for the National Dialogue – would be resolved within days. “We are a few days away from reaching a just solution to the southern issue... within a united and federal Yemen,” he told participants at what was supposed to be one of the final sessions of the Dialogue. The talks, which started in March (GSN 943/7), were originally due to end in September.

Bahrain’s King has earned a breathing space, but only real concessions can defuse the impact of a soon to be launched extra-parliamentary alliance with political and religious appeal.

A little over 41m people voted in the 12th presidential election in the Islamic Republic’s history from a pool of 56.4m eligible voters, giving a turnout of 73%. That was slightly higher than the figure four years ago (72.7%) but did not set any new record – turnout has been higher on at least three other occasions. Incumbent Hassan Rouhani secured 23.5m votes, 57.1% of the total, easily outpacing second-placed Seyyed Razavi Ebrahim Raeisi with 15.8m.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia for a remarkable four decades, died on 9 July at the age of 75. A statement from the Royal Court said the prince, who had retired from his ministerial role in April on grounds of ill-health, was in the United States when he died; his body, accompanied by his sons, was returned home and buried on 11 July at the Al-Adl cemetery in Mecca. The son of Saudi Arabia’s third king, Faisal Bin Abdelaziz (r.1964-75), Prince Saud earned great respect on the diplomatic circuit, where he stood out not just for his experience, but also for his sophistication, humour and kindness.

Population growth is a universal feature of the Gulf Co-operation Council region at a time of booming oil-financed expansion, with a surge in construction activity and accelerating demand for services creating an almost insatiable need for labour. The GCC thus continues to suck in foreign workers to meet real present economic needs. This is also the case for some sectors in Bahrain, but there is also concern that in the small communally divided island state migration policy is serving political ends too – with potentially dangerous consequences.

It was received wisdom that King Salman Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud and the increasingly tight Sudairi circle of power which surrounds him would one day seek to replace his half-brother Prince Miqrin as heir to the throne. While generally seen as benign, Miqrin has been isolated within the Al-Saud since King Abdullah’s death, and in recent months had already found himself sidelined.Yet the speed at which the manoeuvre was executed was a surprise. On 29 April, in a sweeping string of decrees which has become something of a modus operandi for the new king, Salman announced that Miqrin was out as crown prince, and his nephew Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef (MBN) in.

Iraq’s border areas are a wild frontier, marked by intense mafia activity and low-level tribal violence. But the security situation is becoming more manageable than seemed likely even one year ago.

In parallel to an SR9bn ($2.4bn) upgrade of school facilities and teaching methods under the banner of the King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Project for Developing Public Education (Tatweer), the Saudi Ministry of Education (MoE) is tackling the ideological roots of jihadist activity. MoE officials have confirmed that school pupils will be denied access to supposedly extremist

The UAE was among over 50 countries that lined up on 1 July with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in unambiguous opposition to United States and other western foreign policy, voting in favour of Beijing’s imposition of a controversial national security law over Hong Kong at the 44th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regular session. Of the 53 countries that supported China, more than 40 have agreements to join President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road vision for a “balanced and harmonious” infrastructure-driven new world order.

Tensions are high between supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and conservative factions in the run-up to the March 2012 parliamentary election, the Associated Press has reported. Intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi’s

Nouriya Al-Sabeeh looks far from safe, as Islamists gear up for another ministerial grilling, but the wider reform drive should continue as the parliamentary opposition lacks coherence on most non-social policy issues.