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Iran’s education minister Yousef Nouri resigned and was replaced by Farhangian University president Reza Moradsahraei. Iranian media reports linked the move to an outcry over delayed salary payments to teachers, but it also comes amid a wave of alleged poisonings of schoolgirls around the country and ongoing protests against the country’s strict dress code.
Supreme Council for Health chairman Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa was named chairman of the Bahrain Red Crescent Society (BRCS). He is only the third person to take on the role since the BRCS was set up in 1970.
A property owned by Ahmed Bin Nasser Al-Mualla, a member of Umm Al-Quwain’s ruling family and owner of The Zoo Wildlife Park in the emirate, has been linked to questionable practices regarding lion and tiger cubs.
In the late March round of appointments Sheikh Hazza lost his long-held position as Abu Dhabi Executive Council (ADEC) deputy chairman but gained the position of deputy ruler. It is not clear what powers or duties this new role will have and some analysts suspect it will be largely ceremonial.
Government of Iraq in Baghdad and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil reached a new agreement on control of Kurdish oil exports on 1 April, days after the crude pipeline to Turkey was shuttered in response to an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration ruling. However, many questions remain over both sides’ longer-term approach, as well as the attitude of Turkey and international oil companies to the new arrangements.
The population of Oman has broken through the 5m barrier, as the National Centre for Statistics and Information reported in March that the population had reached 5,000,772, made up of 2,881,313 Omanis and 2,119,459 resident expatriates.
Sheikh Abdulla Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa is to take over as chief executive of Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat from 1 May, replacing Khalid Al-Rumaihi who has been in the post since September 2019.
Khalid Bin Mohammed's star has been rising for some time, as his father has awarded him a string of senior jobs, but even as the 'Bani Fatima' further consolidate their power, President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed’s favoured son still had to overcome competition from powerful rivals to secure the position of the UAE's heir-apparent.
Election law: Iraq’s parliament voted on 20 March to maintain the number of seats in the chamber at 329 for the next election. Five seats will be reserved for Christians, with one seat each reserved for the Sabean-Mandaean, Shabak, Faily Kurd and Yazidi minorities.
The Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD) signed an agreement with Afghanistan's Ministry of Education for a project to support 30,000 out-of-school children, half of them girls.
Baghdad deal: Federal Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani said on 13 March that Baghdad and Erbil had reached “a comprehensive agreement” on their outstanding differences, including oil revenues. He said a deal had been reached for all Kurdish oil revenues to be placed in a bank account “without any deductions”. Those funds could be spent by the Kurdistan authorities, subject to supervision by the federal government.
The United States Senate confirmed Michael Ratney as ambassador to Saudi Arabia in a vote mid-March. Ratney has previously served as US special envoy for Syria, consul general in Jerusalem and acting deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Israel and Palestinian Affairs.
Bahraini officials issued an apology to the Cyprus House of Representatives’ speaker Annita Demetriou, after she complained that the flag of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) had been displayed alongside other national flags at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, held in Manama.
Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow was in Doha to oversee the opening of his country’s embassy, some 27 years after diplomatic relations were established between the two gas-rich countries and nine years after Qatar opened its embassy in Ashgabat.
Sheikha Basmah Mubarak Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wife of Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, held a lunch for around 25 female ambassadors and wives of ambassadors at Al-Rimiya Farm in Al-Abdali area.
