Stories under this heading cover the Gulf and the Red Sea regions, including the Arabian Peninsula, Iran and the countries bordering the Red Sea.
An announcement on Wednesday (31 May) that the UAE had withdrawn its participation from the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) coalition is supposed to have caught the US by surprise.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Damascus on Tuesday (18 April) for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid Syria's gradual rehabilitation into the Arab community.
The visit is the first by a senior Saudi diplomat since relations were severed following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
According to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, the Prince Faisal and President Assad discussed steps to "achieve a comprehensive political settlement that...contributes to Syria’s return to the Arab fold."
Global oil prices have soared after a surprise announcment by several key oil-producing states on Sunday (2 April) that they would cut production by as much as one million barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and several Gulf states all announced that they would cut production by more than one million barrels per day, while Russia also said it would extend its cut of half a million barrels per day until the end of the year.