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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.

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.

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.

An arbitration hearing between the English Premier League and championship-winning football club Manchester City FC is due to start on 10 June over a policy designed to prevent clubs signing artificially inflated commercial deals with companies linked to their owners. It is only one element in a complicated saga surrounding Abu Dhabi’s financing of a prized soft power asset.

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.

Ajman Ruler Sheikh Humaid Bin Rashid Al-Nuaimi named Marwan Obaid Al-Mehairi as the new director general of the Emiri Court in late May, among a number of other personnel changes at the Ajman authorities.

Two months after Majles-e Khobregan-e Rahbari (Assembly of Experts) elections, 93 year-old Mohammad Movahedi Kermani has been named to lead the sometimes influential body.

Kuwait's new heir apparent Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah is the first person from the ruling family’s Hamad branch to be named crown prince, ending the duopoly of the Jaber and Salem branches.

More than 80 men and women registered to stand in the Iranian presidential election being held later this month, but the number actually allowed to compete is likely to be in the single figures once the Guardian Council vets all the prospective candidates. Unlike the last election in 2021, there appears to be a chance that some moderate figures will be allowed to run on 28 June.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa says there is “no reason to delay” the restoration of diplomatic relations with Tehran, some eight years after they were severed, while Iran’s acting president has invited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to visit, in a further sign of Tehran’s efforts to improve relations with its Arab neighbours.