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Economic dangers: KRG officials have told their United States counterparts they are concerned the region’s economy “is close to collapsing,” according to the latest Operation Inherent Resolve quarterly report covering Q1 2020. The economy is suffering from a collapse in oil revenues as well as the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. The KRG’s Q1 income from oil exports was expected to average $63m a month, down from $300m-350m/month last year.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on 22 April it had successfully launched a military satellite and placed it into orbit, ending a run of failed launches. The Noor (Light) satellite was carried on the Qassed rocket and launched from a site in Dasht-e Kavir, in central Iran. It coincided with the anniversary of the IRGC’s establishment in 1979. IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami said the satellite “can produce strategic added value for us, and it creates powerful grounds for us in intelligence warfare”.

The Iraqi government condemned “in the strongest possible terms” a Turkish drone strike on a refugee camp near Makhmur on 15 April, in which two women died and at least four others were injured. The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the action by Ankara violated its sovereignty and represented a “grave violation of international humanitarian law”.

A number of countries are withdrawing troops from Iraq amid the Covid-19 crisis, in many cases because of Iraq’s decision to suspend all military training until the second half of May. Among those to confirm redeployments is Australia, which on 23 March said the Australian Defence Force was temporarily relocating non-essential personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan to Al-Mindad Air Base in Dubai, its main logistics base in the region. “This temporary measure is to preserve the safety of our people and partners, and to limit the spread of Covid-19 in operational areas,” defence minister Linda Reynolds said.

Sierra Leone has sent a delegation to work at the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) headquarters in Riyadh, bringing the total number of countries with permanent delegates to 21. The organisation was set up at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in December 2015, but has developed only slowly since then. IMCTC has 41 members drawn from around the Gulf, the wider Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The United States’ Central Command (Centcom) in late February submitted its ‘unfunded priorities’ list to Congress. On top of its 2021 budget request submitted earlier in February, Centcom commander US Marine Corps General Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie wants an extra $371m to increase intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capacity in the region, and to conduct, inform and influence activities against “malign state actors and their proxies”. McKenzie also wants $21m to build up facilities at the Omani port of Duqm.

Riyadh confirmed on 15 February that the kingdom had lost a Royal Saudi Air Force jet in the skies over Yemen. A statement from Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen official spokesman Colonel Turki Al-Malki said the Tornado had crashed at 23:45 the night before, while providing back-up and support to units of the National Army of Yemen in Al-Jawf governorate.

Following the seizure of Iranian-manufactured arms off Yemen last November, the US Navy intercepted a further shipment on 9 February, when the cruiser USS Normandy boarded a small dhow in the Arabian Sea off Oman. The Iranian-manufactured consignment included 150 Dehlavieh anti-tank guided missiles (based on the Russian Kornet), four Misagh-2 Chinese-derived surface-to-air missiles and thermal imaging weapon sights.

Gulf states are taking an interest in Israel’s new five-year defence plan, codenamed Momentum, amid indications of a rapprochement, despite the generally hostile public reception to President Donald Trump’s peace plan. Israeli chief of defence staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi has started to implement the Momentum plan even before the latest Israeli election result is known.

A group of eight European Union countries has launched another maritime security operation in the Gulf, to be based in France’s existing Camp de la Paix naval base in Abu Dhabi. The European Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) mission is supported by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal. In a joint statement issued on 20 January, they pointed to rising insecurity and instability in the region which was affecting freedom of navigation and “jeopardising trade and energy supplies with potential worldwide economic consequences”.

Saudi Arabia is to host the Gulf Co-operation Council’s Unified Military Command Headquarters, in the latest sign that, despite their differences, GCC members are taking some steps to develop greater security co-operation. Foreign affairs minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Bin Abdullah signed an agreement with outgoing GCC secretary-general Abdullatif Bin Rashid Al-Zayani on 22 December for Saudi Arabia to act as the host country.

The UAE is to deepen military co-operation with South Korea in areas such as intelligence, cybersecurity and munitions, undertaking joint research and exchanges of technology. UAE minister of state for defence affairs Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Bowardi held talks with South Korea’s national defence minister Jeong Kyeong-doo during a visit to Seoul on 16 December for the UAE-Korean Supreme Military Joint Committee. Al-Bowardi also paid a visit to the Korean Defence Development Agency.

Tehran ran a high-profile, three-day naval exercise in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman with Russia and China in late December, under the title Marine Security Belt. China’s Type 052D Xining guided-missile destroyer took part, along with three vessels from Russia’s Baltic fleet: the Neustrashimyy-class anti-submarine warfare frigate Yaroslav Mudry, a tanker and a tug boat. Both Russia’s Yaroslav Mudry and China’s Xining are relatively modern vessels frequently seen in the region.

The Gulf Co-operation Council is moving forward with setting up a long-planned Gulf Academy for Strategic and Security Studies, to be funded equally by the six member states from 2022 onwards. The academy is due to start offering courses from the 2023/24 academic year, according to the final communiqué issued at the end of the 40th GCC Supreme Council in Riyadh on 10 December

The crew of the guided missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman reported finding a cache of Iranian-origin “advanced guided missile components” when they intercepted a small Yemeni dhow in the Arabian Sea on 25 November. The missile components were described by the US Navy as being of a sophistication not previously encountered; further details have not been released pending analysis. Previous interceptions at sea have largely comprised small arms. The dhow and its crew were handed over to the Yemen Coast Guard.