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King Salman Bin Abdulaziz flew into Jeddah on 9 March, amid fresh speculation about his state of health. His son, Crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman followed a few days later

Two of Dubai’s larger real estate developers, Nakheel and Meydan, are being handed over to Dubai Holding, the investment group owned by the emirate’s Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum

Two former managers of PetroSaudi International, a company set up by Prince Turki Bin Abdullah, are facing bribery, money laundering and other charges over a 2009 deal with Malaysia’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has been at the centre of a major corruption scandal for the past decade

A long-running investigation into millions of dollars’ worth of bribes paid to Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah and his associates in 2007-10 has ended with the two defendants walking free from a London court, after successfully arguing the payments had been approved by the British and Saudi authorities. One defendant’s lawyer told the court his client was being prosecuted to deflect attention from the UK government’s decades of dubious payments in the Gulf

In a further accumulation of jobs in the ruling family, President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed has named his daughter Mariam as deputy chair of the Presidential Court for National Projects while his son Theyab has a new senior role at the Presidential Court for Development and Fallen Heroes’ Affairs

Kuwait's recently-appointed emir travelled to the UAE in early March, following on from trips to the other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council in the opening months of the year

Waves of appointments by King Salman since 2017 have seen younger-generation royals and those from more remote branches of the ruling family appointed to prominent positions, in a break from previous monarchs’ habits

Official figures showed turnout of just 41% at parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections on 1 March, the lowest of any election since the 1979 revolution. While the authorities called for a festival of democratic expression, those abstaining including former president Mohammad Khatami.

Critics say the trial of 84 people on terrorism charges amounts to the defendants being retried on the same charges they were previously convicted of a decade earlier

The Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (Dimdex) featured a Russian naval vessel and Iranian anti-ship missiles, alongside western defence firms. Not only did Dimdex accommodate an unusual line-up of government participants, the organisers said a record number of contracts were signed

Bahrain’s ruler reached the 25th anniversary of his time in power on 6 March. A silver jubilee flag was commissioned for the occasion

Sultan Haitham landed back in Muscat on 27 February, following a 19-day trip to the United Kingdom

The cabinet has set a date during Ramadan for the latest election to Kuwait’s National Assembly (parliament), with almost all members of the recently-dissolved chamber vowing to stand for re-election.

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz’s nine years on the throne have seen a concentration of power in the 88-year-old monarch’s immediate family – who are the subject of the latest GSN profile series – that is unprecedented in modern Saudi history. Other significant branches of the Al-Saud have gone into retreat as Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has taken an iron grip on the kingdom

The UAE has set its sights on carving out a leading international role in artificial intelligence, with national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Khaled Bin Mohammed vying for national AI leadership – but the pursuit of the powerful technology is also causing friction with the US