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Ali Akbar Ahmadian was appointed Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) secretary in Iran, replacing Ali Shamkhani who had held the influential post since September 2013. Since his resignation as SNSC secretary, Shamkhani has been appointed a political adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
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.
Colonel Jassim Mohammed Abdullah Al-Khayal was named commander-in-chief of the Emiri Guard in Sharjah and prompted to the rank of major general. Al-Khayal had previously served as director general of the General Administration of the Emiri Guard.
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.
A Yemen Coast Guard officer was killed in an exchange of fire with private security guards on the luxury yacht Kalizma off the coast of Al-Mahra governorate late April. A guard on the Cook Islands-flagged Kalizma was also wounded.
Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nedaja) forces took control of the Marshall Islands-registered tanker Advantage Sweet in the Gulf of Oman late April, while it was sailing from Kuwait to Houston, Texas.
An unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) air defence commander has been sentenced by a Tehran military court to 13 years in prison for their role in the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran in January 2018.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani reshuffled the country’s security establishment in a series of decrees and orders, naming his brother and interior minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani as commander of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).
The Meraj-532 is the first Iranian drone known to be launched from a speeding vehicle, which means it does not need a rocket booster system for take-off. The weight saved appears to have been traded in for a larger warhead.
A leak of top secret US intelligence reports included allegations that UAE intelligence agents have been cooperating with their Russian counterparts to act against western interests. Abu Dhabi has denied there is any substance to these allegations, but they have come at a time of heightened concern in Washington about commercial and military ties between the UAE and Moscow.
Iran has unveiled a new cruise missile, named the Paveh, which, with a claimed range of 1,650km, could easily reach Israel.
The 86th Flotilla of the Iranian Navy (Nejada) docked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil late February for a week-long port visit, having apparently bypassed the Panama Canal by taking a 7,000 nautical mile detour around South America instead. It is unclear where the flotilla is heading for next.
Control of the Asir region has fluctuated between different groups over the centuries. By the 1830s, the Al-Ayed dynasty was in control, until the area was captured by the Ottomans in the late 1860s. Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdelaziz (Ibn Saud) brought Asir under his direct rule in the early 1920s.
Recent developments Attempts continue to renew the ceasefire in Yemen, but the emphasis has switched to finding a permanent settlement. Much of recent diplomatic activity has been necessarily secret. Saudi Arabia appears more urgently determined to extract itself from the war.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the United States agreed with the United Nations consensus view that Al-Qaeda veteran Saif Al-Adel was now de facto head of the jihadist group and that he was based in Iran.
