Ramadan begins

The holy month of Ramadan has begun across the region. In Saudi Arabia, the royal court announced that fasting would start on Sunday 29 June; the rest of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states and Iraq followed suit, while in Yemen it began the previous day. With protocol trumping any political tensions between Qatar and other Gulf states (GSN 965/1), Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani exchanged telephone calls with leaders including Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud, Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the kings of Jordan and Morocco and the presidents of Sudan, Algeria, Palestine, Turkey, Libya, Djibouti and Mauritania.