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Iran’s election campaign is under way with conservative hopeful Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the more hardline Saeed Jalili battling with moderate candidate Masoud Pezeshkian to become Iran’s next president, in an election whose outcome is likely to hinge on how many apathetic voters can be persuaded to turn out and how many conservative contenders decide to pull out before polling day on 28 June.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani was appointed as foreign affairs minister in early 2016 and given the additional role of prime minister in March 2023, replacing Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Bin Abdelaziz Al-Thani as PM. 

The slate of six candidates in Iran’s presidential election includes just one reformist figure, although one of the others – Mostafa Pourmohammadi – is seen as a relatively moderate conservative. Only three of the candidates look like genuine contenders: hardliners Saeed Jalili and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the only reformist figure Masoud Pezeshkian.

Emir at the centre: Political power in Qatar is heavily concentrated in Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and a close network of advisors. While some other members of the ruling Al-Thani family are in the cabinet, they are often only distantly related to the emir, rather than his closest relatives. Tamim has further consolidated his control over key portfolios by directly tying ministries and governmental agencies to his Diwan.

The health of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is widely believed to have deteriorated, leaving the ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman closer than ever to a formal assumption of power. Meanwhile, the heir apparent appears to be negotiating new regional alignments, notably with Kuwait.

Faisal Bin Saud Al-Mujfel has been named as Saudi Arabia’s envoy to Damascus as formal diplomatic ties are slowly restored, but wider relations with GCC countries continue to be undermined by the flow of illegal drugs to the Gulf from regime-held areas in Syria.

Stockholm has released former public prosecutor Hamid Nouri, who was sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court in July 2022 for his role in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in Iran.

The exchange of envoys finally comes after Manama and Doha agreed in April 2023 to fully restore diplomatic relations, ending a schism that started in 2017 with the boycott of Doha by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Despite a $10m US bounty on his head, Sirajuddin Haqqani held talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in Abu Dhabi during what is believed to be the Afghan interior minister’s first trip abroad since the Taliban seized control in 2021.

Abu Dhabi Deputy Ruler Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan held talks with US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and former president Barack Obama in Washington on 5 June, before travelling to Seattle to meet senior Microsoft figures.

The recently-appointed Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah held talks in Jeddah on 11 June with his Saudi counterpart Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, in the latest of a wave of bilateral meetings involving senior figures from the neighbouring countries.

Iraqi Kurdistan could finally go to the polls in September after the Kurdistan Democratic Party reportedly lifted its boycott of the regional parliamentary election.

Former Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani may once more be in charge of indirect talks with the US over the nuclear file, with Oman acting as the key intermediary.

With great power competition rising between the US and China over the development of artificial intelligence, the major Gulf economies are being forced by Washington to pick a side. The UAE appears to have come down firmly in favour of working with American AI firms, while Saudi Arabia has been divesting its American AI investments and striking deals with Chinese rivals.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani is engaged in legal disputes with Swiss art dealer Phoenix Ancient Art over alleged fake art works, with cases in the London and New York courts.