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The Palestinian issue has been steadily sidelined in the minds of most leaders in recent years, but that all changed with Hamas' brutal attack on Israel on 7 October and the devastating bombardment of Gaza that has followed. With the death toll quickly running into the thousands and claims of war crimes being levelled against both sides, Gulf governments are scrambling to deal with the fallout.

A drone strike on Arbat Airport in Sulaymaniyah governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in September killed three members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's elite Counterterrorism Group and wounded three others. Iraqi military officials blamed Turkey for the attack.

Securing workable energy, economic and security relations with Turkey has even greater urgency for Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government as the KRG says it can no longer afford to pay its employees’ salaries due to the closure since late March of the vital crude oil export pipeline.

Saudi Arabia signed a deal to buy the Akinci combat drone from Turkey’s Baykar Technology, during a visit to the kingdom by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Bayraktar called it the largest defence and aviation export contract in Turkish history.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Defence had signed a contract with the Turkish government to buy an unspecified number of Bayraktar TB2 combat drones built by Baykar Technology. The deal was said to be worth $367m and aims to strengthen Kuwait's defence capabilities.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) kept the UAE on its 'grey list' of jurisdictions under increased monitoring. The UAE is one of 26 jurisdictions on the grey list, alongside the likes of Jordan, Turkey and Yemen. The inter-governmental watchdog also kept Iran on its 'black list' of high-risk jurisdictions, alongside North Korea and Myanmar.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) became one of the first international leaders to visit Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following his recent re-election.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan secured a third term as Turkey's president in late May, despite significant weaknesses in the domestic economy and a stronger than usual opposition challenge. Gulf leaders quickly called to congratulate Erdoğan and the UAE president was one of the first to do so in person – a sign that, even if they are increasingly reluctant to write blank cheques, they are still keen to do business with a country with significant economic and military potential.

Saudi sports minister Prince Abdelaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal and Qatar Olympic Committee president Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al-Thani were among those to attend the opening ceremony of the fifth Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.

The current Turkish deployment to Qatar is not the first. In 1872, 100 Turkish troops and field guns were landed in Doha, launching a military presence that was to remain for 44 years. Some years ago, GSN is told, a number of soldiers’ bodies were discovered on wasteland behind Doha Fort, a former Ottoman garrison. Local historians say the death rate from disease among Ottoman soldiers was appallingly high, at around 40%; scurvy was rife among troops who didn’t even have a vegetable garden to tend until 1910.

While most eyes have been on Turkey’s relations with Israel (poor), the United States (could be better) and the European Union (increasingly indifferent), the early June visit of Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leader

Genel Enerji’s Heritage Oil deal represents an important first step in the consolidation of Kurdistan’s oil sector. GSN’s soundings suggest the deal isn’t politically motivated, but it will still serve to reinforce the trend of growing Turkish commercial influence in the region, which could be the precursor to warmer political relations.

The region stretching from the Bosphorus to the Gulf must accommodate itself to a new strategic reality, as the United States – under new management and with a harrowing roster of domestic issues to resolve – disengages from Iraq, while focusing hard on Afghanistan and its neighbours.