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An investment fund linked to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence has taken an equity stake in Aeralis, becoming the second largest shareholder in the UK military jet developer.

The last stretch of tarmac on a 720km road linking Ibri in Oman with Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province was completed on 14 September, suggesting that the new crossing will open as planned before end-2021.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s favoured vehicle the Public Investment Fund (PIF) is to acquire a 25% stake in Emaar, the Economic City, to settle a debt of SR2.8bn ($755m) that the master developer of King Abdullah Economic City owed to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

London Stock Exchange-listed Petrofac has admitted seven counts of failing to prevent bribery in relation to contracts awarded in 2012-15 in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, contrary to Section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010.

UK-registered company Lex Foundation, of which Prince Abdelaziz Bin Nawaf Bin Abdelaziz was recorded as a director for nearly two years, has brought a claim in the Commercial Court in London against Citigroup. Lex Foundation and its current director, British Cypriot national Olgun Halil Shah, claiming Citibank lost €10bn ($11.6bn) transferred from Deutsche Bank to an account at Citi.

The Gulf Co-operation Council is to launch formal negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom in 2022, according to an 8 October British government statement. The GCC negotiating team will be led by Saudi Arabia’s Abdulraham Ahmed Al-Harbi.

The UN Human Rights Council voted to end the Group of Eminent Experts (GEE) on Yemen’s mandate on 7 October. The GEE was set up in 2017 to investigate war crimes by all sides in the conflict; it has repeatedly found that air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition and actions by the Houthis may amount to war crimes.

Challenged by years of drift even before Covid-19 had a heavy impact on its economy, Oman has sought to revitalise its hydrocarbons industries since Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said came to power. Institutions have been reconfigured and some big players continue to invest in gas, but overall the results are mixed.

A flurry of political activity in the past two weeks has seen a much-anticipated amnesty for political figures move forward, quickly followed by the resignation of the government. However, the opposition camp appears divided and it remains to be seen if the relationship between the National Assembly (parliament) and the executive will fundamentally change.

Deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri-Kani – also chief negotiator on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal – was due to hold talks with the UK’s Middle East and North Africa minister James Cleverly in London on 11 November as GSN was going to press.

Walid Abukhaled – appointed Saudi Arabian Military Industries (Sami) chief executive in August 2020 after serving as acting chief executive for several months (following Andreas Schwer’s departure), he joined the group in September 2019 as chief strategy and business development officer. This followed a career at BAE Systems, AEC, General Electric and Northrup Grumman.

GSN Risk Grade: D↓4 Recent developments Election surprises: The general election on 10 October delivered some surprising results, including a strong showing from Muqtada Al-Sadr’s bloc, which emerged as the overall winner with 73 seats (up from 54 in the 2018 election), and a weak performance by the pro-Iran Fateh Alliance, which slumped from 48 seats last time to 15 this time.

Qatari Emiri Air Force (QEAF) commander Lieutenant General Salem Bin Mohammed Bin Aqeel Al-Nabit has been promoted to Qatari Armed Forces chief of staff, succeeding Lieutenant General Ghanim Bin Shaheen Al-Ghanim, who has been made endowments and Islamic affairs minister. The change was announced via Emiri decree 60/2021 on 19 October.

Months-old comments by Lebanon’s information minister George Kordahi on the Yemen war set off a diplomatic storm in late October. In an interview originally given on 5 August to Al Jazeera, but first aired on 25 October, he said the Houthi rebels in Yemen were “defending themselves… against an external aggression” and that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the coalition.

Sheikh Rashid Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has been named chair of the newly-formed National Council for the Arts.