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While the world focused on the US move to confirm their small Emirate as a key hub in its global military strategy, effectively replacing Saudi Arabia, Qatari voters on 29 April overwhelmingly approved the new Constitution presented by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani on 15 April urged Qataris to vote in a 29 April referendum on a draft Constitution that will grant legislative powers to a 45-member Shura (Advisory Council), regulate ruling family affairs and lay out a separation of powers in a significant step towards democratisation in the GCC region. Once voted in, the Constitution is not open to amendment for a minimum period of ten years.

The mood of crisis in Gulf affairs, with decisions on a war against Iraq perhaps just weeks away, is proving a delicate test for the West’s readiness to promote a democracy and human rights agenda.

Qatar’s future parliamentarians will have legislative powers, the right of veto over the budget and be able to scrutinise ministers — but only two-thirds will be elected, under the proposed new Constitution. One-third of the 45-member Legislative Council — probably including ministers — will be nominated by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who will decide when the Constitution is put into effect, probably by early in 2003.

The US public  was  shown  further  grounds  to  support  an attack  on  Iraq,  when  a  leaked  intelligence  report  suggested that  a  US Navy pilot  lost  in  1991  might  still  be  alive  and  in captivity. It touched on a topic of exceptional sensitivity in the USA — where  many  people  still  believe  missing  servicemen from  the  Korean and Vietnam wars  are  either  alive  or  were held  until  their  deaths.  It  also  forced  a  reluctant  Pentagon  to publicly admit that the Iraqi Air Force (IrAF) scored a single air-to-air victory on the first night of the Gulf War.

The  New  Yorker magazine,  required  reading  for  MidEast watchers,  has  revived  suggestions  of  a  “new”  link  between Iraqi intelligence  and  Osama  Bin  Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. Its claim that the two pariahs jointly ran a terrorist organisation in Kurdish northern Iraq—if true—could provide the smoking gun  that  US hawks  have  been  seeking  to  take  the  “war against terrorism” to Iraq. Efforts to link 11 September suicide hijacker Mohammed  Atta with  Iraqi  intelligence  in  the  Czech Republic did  not  convince,  and  until  now  the  Central Intelligence  Agency — but  not  its  influential  former  directorJames  Woolsey—had  largely  discounted  reported  links between President Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

It will probably not be until early 2002 that the committee appointed by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani to prepare a draft constitution finally produces its report. But certain principles are clear already. There will be an elected national assembly to replace the long-standing appointed Majlis Al-Shura, and Qatari women will have the vote and the right to stand for elected office — a principle already established with the present elected municipal councils.

The UAE's long-awaited government reshuffle saw a significant shake up in key technocratic posts but, unsurprisingly, no change in the "power ministries." The cabinet shake up, announced at the end of March, saw the installation of eight new ministers in the 21 member cabinet under Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid.

Defence ministers of the GCC states, meeting in Kuwait, endorsed an earlier proposal by Oman that the Peninsula Shield joint defence force be increased tenfold to 100,000 men. Currently the Peninsula Shield force, based at Hafr Al-Batin in north-eastern Saudi Arabia, has a strength of about 10,000 men.

Saudi Arabia Newsletter: The present urgent political concerns of Saudi Arabian leaders may be concentrated on the latest Iranian irruption into Iraqi territory,' but not so exclusively that the breakdown of the King Hussein-Yasser Arafat joint peace process is not a matter of equal pre-occupation for the Saudi government.

Iraq’s financial situation is far from satisfactory. The Gulf states and Saudi Arabia have provided the country with something like $30bn but there are some signs of a growing reluctance to lend any more.