Egypt: political prisoners, port control, and shifting alliances

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1. Prospects for a ceasefire in Yemen
   

   Summary: Yemen remains a country where tragedy in the form of a deadly stampede and hope in the shape of a prison release ahead of a potential peace deal stand side by side....

2. Violence in the West Bank
   

   Summary: a week of shootings. Possible political consequences. Kushner’s peace plan still at the other end of the rainbow....

3. Saudi military display
   

   Military exercises in Saudi Arabia named "Sword of Abdullah" and billed as the largest ever concluded on 29 April with a parade at the north-eastern Hafr al-Batin airbase attended by senior Saudi princes, the King of Bahrain, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and senior officials from Kuwait and Oman (but not Qatar), as well as by General Raheel Sharif, the Pakistani chief of army staff who visited Saudi Arabia in February....

4. The Gulf states and the Iran deal
   

   Summary: in our posting of 27 November we mentioned that Saudi Arabia’s official response to the Iran interim deal was cautiously positive. Reactions elsewhere in the Gulf have reflected the varying interests of the Gulf states but have generally been more positive. ...