Search results

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oman's Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said paid a series of visits to military bases in mid-March. He was at the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO)’s Adam Air Base, and at Shafa Garrison, accompanied by his eldest son Crown Prince Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al-Said.

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) began the annual process of prisoner pardons to mark Ramadan, by ordering the release of 1,025 inmates. Such pardons are a staple of UAE life, but the number of people pardoned this year is substantially higher than last year.

Bahrain's Royal Endurance Team captain Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa was presented with the Order of Ahmad Al-Fateh at an event in Manama, held to mark his recent win in the 160km race of the FEI Endurance World Championships in the UAE.

The UAE has withdrawn from the race to hold the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in 2026 and instead thrown its support behind Qatar’s bid.

A day after his appointment to the Mubadala board, Sheikh Theyab Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan gained another role when his father UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) appointed him to chair the newly-established Abu Dhabi Transport Company.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah returned home on 19 March, following his latest trip to receive medical treatment in Italy. He had left just over two weeks earlier, on 4 March.

While America and Europe continue to present a united front in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the UAE’s more ambivalent stance continues to cause concern in western capitals – and has the potential to undermine, or at least complicate, the country’s diplomatic and commercial relations with the United States and its allies.

The world has changed radically in the two decades since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, but few of the key players appear to have changed their minds on whether the invasion was justified – and many supporters continue to distance themselves from responsibility for the tumultuous events that followed. GSN followed the build-up to the conflict with great attention, as western intelligence and other agencies searched for a ‘smoking gun’ that didn’t really exist.