The UN Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, who has served as the main UN negotiator for peace in Yemen, is set to leave his post after serving for more than three years. He is due to take more senior responsibilities as a UN undersecretary-general for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Violence swept across the Holy Land on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning (11-12 May) leaving dozens of dead people and many more injured in the Palestinian territories and in Israel. Reuters news agency reports that hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement  based in Gaza, escalated on Wednesday, with at least 35 killed in Gaza and five in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday (10 May) hosted in the Saudi city port of Jeddah the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as the two countries put behind them past differences.

The European Union's big project of consultation with its citizens kicked off in Strasbourg on 9 May - Europe Day. The Conference on the Future of Europe is meant to provide an opportunity for all EU citizens to participate in the debate on how the EU should be shaped through a series of digital platforms and citizens' panels. Sunday's Strasbourg meeting was filled with big words by EU leaders. There was talk of "a new beginning", the "next generation of Europeans" and "a democratic wind". European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, spoke of the opportunity "to simplify" the EU "and make it more 'down to earth' where necessary".

Alliances are being formed between Armenian political parties ahead of the 20 June parliamentary elections. Whilst they all claim to want to oust the current prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, they are all also busy competing against each other. Despite this, the next Armenian government is likely to be a coalition government, argues Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed for commonspace.eu

Intensive efforts are continuing as negotiations entered the fourth round in Vienna to bring Iran and the United States back to a nuclear agreement. Multiple reports suggest ‘positive’ developments coming out of Vienna as negotiators achieved a better understanding of difficulties that had prevailed in earlier rounds. These difficulties revolved around which sanctions are to be lifted and which measured are needed to be taken by Iran.

This year, faced by the challenges of the pandemic and its social and economic consequences, European leaders meeting at an informal summit in Porto, hosted by the current Portuguese Presidency of the EU, focused on social issues, including on how to ensure an inclusive recovery, with education and skills at the heart of the EU's political action.