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During the course of nearly six years of warfare, fluctuating in intensity and fortune, both Iran and Iraq have adopted a variety of military tactics and followed changing strategies in attempts to gain a victorious advantage in the protracted Gulf war. None of the courses pursued has given either side a clear-cut superiority. Both protagonists seem unable to break the military, political and economic stalemate that presently envelops their harsh and sterile conflict.

It is a fairly common custom throughout the Arab world for senior officials and civil servants to issue from time to time a bland report on the state of affairs pertaining to their particular responsibilities. Such reports are invariably laudatory in tone and often anodyne in content. They rarely, if ever, reveal anything new. The shrewd and efficient Secretary General of the GCC, Abdullah Bishara, was recently moved to remark to the Saudi daily, ''AI Youm" on the accomplishments of the Gulf Co-operation Council.

The rhetoric of the OK Corral has served to strengthen the impression that Colonel Qadhafi was an easy target who, unlike Syria, could not expect Soviet armed support. But that is far too simple, and we have no doubt that Syria and others well know it. It is central to both superpowers to obviate any danger of armed confrontation with each other. That is why, whatever the state of public incivilities between them, the State Department is always in touch with the Soviet Foreign Ministry, and the CIA and KGB maintain close contact at all levels. Secondly, whatever the American line about Soviet expansionism in the Middle East, the Americans well know that the Soviet Union is not going to risk armed confrontation with the US over any Arab state (or indeed Iran, where the overthrow of the Shah was as worrying to the Russians as it was to the Americans).

The early days of the United Arab Emirates, when the federation was propelled into existence by the British withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971. were a lot less difficult than many had expected them to be - including the departing British and the rulers and peoples of the federation itself. True, the new state was a deal smaller than had been originally envisaged. Bahrain and Qatar had been very likely candidates to join the other seven shaikhdoms of the so-called Trucial states, until, with second thoughts in Manama and Doha about the leadership of the federation, the two countries decided against joining and chose separate independence.

On 17 September, 1980 President Saddam Hussein announced Iraq's unilateral abrogation of the 1975 Algiers agreement with Iran which defined the shared sovereignty of the two countries of the Shatt al Arab waterway. Five days later the Iraqi army invaded Iran, and the Iraqi air force struck at targets deep inside Iran. Many observers at once foresaw that the war would bog down in an inconclusive military stalemate. Despite the disruption of Iran's military forces by political purges, expert military assessments put Iraqi armed forces as not much better.

Latest US satellite photographs of the Gulf region show that Iran may be preparing for a third and major offensive against Iraq, north of the city of Basra, Iraq's second largest city. The satellite photographs, from the Department of Defense, reveal that Iran has marshalled up to half a million troops on the edge of the Huwaizah marshes north of Basra. Other American intelligence reports indicate that Iran still has over 30,000 troops well dug in on the Al Faw peninsula. The reports say the Iranian troops in and around Al Faw are being constantly supplied by launches and barges under cover of night.

The Foreign Ministers of the six Gulf Co-operation Council countries met in Riyadh last week for their eighteenth session of the GCC's Ministerial Council. They sat to a reassuringly routine agenda for a theoretically routine meeting which included such subjects of comforting normality as the fishing regulations of member states, the outcome of meetings of GCC ministers of aviation, transport, communications, trade and education, and- the continuing dialogue the GCC is holding with the EEC countries, the United States and Japan.

Iran's major land offensive, long promised by Tehran and equally expected by Baghdad, has brought Iranian troops to the Iraqi west bank of the Shatt al Arab waterway - for the first time in the five and a half year old Gulf war. Both sides have made the usual conflicting military claims and the communiques of the two sides are as unreliable as they are categoric. But the impartial cameras of the western intelligence satellites showed that the Iranians have succeeded in establishing themselves in the Iraqi oil port of Al Faw on the river estuary, and threaten to cut the highway between Basra and Kuwait.

National celebrations began in Kuwait at the beginning of this month, marking the country's 25th anniversary of independence. An atmosphere of festivity surrounds the various ceremonies and events being organised for the occasion, and senior ministers have been caught up in the general jollity. Shaikh Sabah al Ahmad, the Foreign Minister, last week joined Kuwaiti folklore troupes in the traditional ardha dancing. "We are in need", Shaikh Sabah al Ahmad said, "for celebrations at this glorious occasion - especially under the current circumstances."

Even when the fighting in South Yemen's bitter civil war comes to a halt, the ferocious political struggle for control of the country will not be over. Supporters of Abdul Fattah Ismail, the leader of the coup attempt, broadcasting from Lahej, 30 miles north of the capital, said that President Ali Nasser Muhammad had been ousted and that a new collective leadership of the Yemeni Socialist Party had taken control. The "collective leadership" comprises three military intelligence officers, a former minister, and the head of state security.

American and Israeli threats of military action against Libya have been condemned by a special council session of the Arab League, meeting in Tunis last week. The permanent representatives of the 21-member League described the US threat as a challenge to the entire Arab world. An official communique said the Council had adopted a series of appropriate measures concerning the American and Israeli threats, but did not disclose the nature of the measures. The League meeting was attended, somewhat unexpectedly, by the Libyan Foreign Minister, Ali Abdul Salam al Traiki, who denied any Libyan involvement in last month's terrorist attacks at Rome and Vienna airports in which 19 people died.

The GCC's latest effort to bring about an end to the Gulf war has not made any noticeable progress. A fresh attempt, decided upon at last month's GCC meeting in Muscat, to persuade Iran and Iraq to engage in peace negotiations, began with a visit to Baghdad by Oman's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Yousef al Alawi. This was meant to be followed by a trip to Tehran but the expected invitation from the Iranians was 'not forthcoming.'

The scant attention paid by the Western press to the GCC summit in Muscat this month is a measure of the lack of dramatic decision-making by the Heads of State. The agreement to renew peacemaking contacts with Iran and Iraq is nothing new, while arguments about the military dispositions and command structure of the Gulf Rapid Deployment Force were clearly unresolved.

If the recent GCC summit conference in Muscat were to be judged on its final statements and declarations, a general verdict could be less than flattering about the meeting's ostensible results. In the wider political fields and in its internal and domestic affairs, the GCC may seem to have achieved little of note during the past year. The three-day meeting produced, in the words of its participants, "Satisfaction with steps taken" (regarding the Unified Economic Agreement), "approval for a concept" (for a defence strategy), "and the ratification of unified policies" anything else the six GCC leaders may have discussed)".

Among the more intriguing of recent events in the Gulf - and the least publicised - has been the agreement between Oman and the Soviet Union to establish diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors. The rationale behind the Omani decisions has become no clearer in the past few weeks, but it is strange that there has been so little comment on the development, either in the Arab world or elsewhere.