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French-headquartered aerospace company Airbus is to set up a facility with Saudi Arabia's Scopa Industries Corporation to build military and civilian helicopters in the kingdom, following an agreement signed on the sidelines of the Saudi-French Investment Forum in Paris.

An Iranian naval commander has claimed GCC states are interested in joining a new coalition to patrol regional waters. Given the concerns in many capitals about recent Iranian seizures of oil tankers that seems unlikely to progress, but the UAE has recently pulled out of the US-led Combined Maritime Forces – seemingly due to unhappiness about the amount of support Washington is willing to give to its regional partners.

At least three border guards were killed late May, in clashes on the frontier between Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province and Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, amid rising tensions over water flows.

Iran appears to have test-fired an updated version of its Khorramshahr ballistic missile, called the Khorramshahr-4. Officials said the missile had a range of 2,000km with a warhead of 1,500kg, which suggests it has been optimised to target Israel.

Iran could soon extend its burgeoning defence ties with Russia by providing fast attack craft for Russian naval forces to use in the Black Sea.

UAE state-owned defence group Edge is to push for defence export orders in Latin America, after announcing it is to open an office in Brazil’s federal capital Brasilia in the near future.

A five-day meeting in Aden concluded with leaders from other factions joining the Southern Transitional Council (STC), prompting warnings from Houthi rebels and others about the growing risk of the secessionist movement gaining ground in Yemen.

Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga forces continue to be controlled by the KDP and PUK, despite efforts over many years to wrest control away from the region’s two main political parties and hand them over to the non-partisan Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. The encouragement of foreign governments – who have spent years and significant resources on support and training programmes to modernise and professionalise the Peshmerga – have not yet resulted in meaningful change.

Iran - which has substantial ammunition production capability as a legacy of its 1980-88 war with Iraq - is reportedly sending ammunition to Russia across the Caspian Sea for use in its Ukraine war.

Construction work is underway on a 2,400-metre runway on Abd Al-Kuri, the westernmost island in Yemen's Socotra archipelago, according to recent satellite imagery. Local press reports have said the UAE is behind the project, but there has been no official confirmation of its involvement.

There is hope of peace in Yemen, but a breakthrough between Houthi rebels and Riyadh remains just out of reach, despite extensive talks in Sanaa, where ambassador Mohammed Al-Jaber made the first senior Saudi visit since 2015. However, further talks are due to be held in May, against the backdrop of improving Saudi-Iran relations and a wider regional trend favouring diplomacy over conflict.

The Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) and the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF) are to continue operating their joint Typhoon squadron for a further two years, based at RAF Coningsby in the UK.

Russian and Chinese vessels joined their Iranian counterparts in a naval exercise off Chah Bahar in the Gulf of Oman in mid-March. After two days of air defence and anti-hijacking drills, the exercise concluded with a fleet review on 19 March.

The United States Naval Forces Central Command (Navcent) held the 18-day International Maritime Exercise 23 (IMX23) in late February and early March, with an opening ceremony for the operational phase held at US 5th Fleet’s headquarters in Bahrain.

Iran has unveiled a new cruise missile, named the Paveh, which, with a claimed range of 1,650km, could easily reach Israel.