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By and large, Oman reacted quickly and efficiently to the cyclone that struck the Sultanate in early June

Singapore Technologies (ST) Marine has handed over the fourth Al-Ofouq class patrol vessel designed and built for the Royal Navy of Oman. The RNOV Khassab is the final part of an order awarded by the Ministry of Defence in April 2012, the largest defence export contract in the Singapore firm’s history. The boats replace the Sultanate’s four Seeb class patrol vessels, which were commissioned in the early 1980s. The Al-Ofouq is 75m in length, can accommodate 60 crew and is equipped with a flight deck for a medium lift-helicopter.

Doha is to upgrade its air defences at an estimated cost of $197m. The United States Defense Security Co-operation Agency notified Congress of the deal on 7 March. It includes equipment and software to improve air defence planning at the Qatar Emiri Air Force air operation centre and will provide US-Qatari systems interoperability. The main supplier is Raytheon. The US State Department said the equipment will strengthen Qatar’s capability to counter current and future threats in the region and reduce its dependence on US forces.

Kuwait, like many Gulf states, has been grappling with how best to deal with sociAl networking sites such as Twitter, which have given wings to dissent that in the past would not have left the realms of private conversation.

General Intelligence Directorate chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin near Moscow, the Kremlin said on 3 December. A previous meeting between the two men, in late July, has been the source of much speculation. The contents of that meeting remain elusive, and there has been considerable, unsubstantiated speculation about whether Bandar offered the Russians oil and investment opportunities in return for concessions on Iran and Syria (GSN 957/7). According to news agencies, the latest meeting discussed the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad was in Riyadh on 1 May for a meeting with the new top team. Greeted at Riyadh Airbase by Riyadh governor Prince Faisal Bin Bandar, Salman went on to the Al-Yamamah Palace where he met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. He was then seen off at the airport by minister of state Musaid Bin Mohammed Al-Aiban – the absence of an Al-Saud to see him and his delegation off is surprising, given that he is the heir to the throne of Bahrain.

There is still some way to go before the 2016 bicentenary of Bahrain-Britain relations, but the exchange of diplomatic niceties and self-promotion is already well under way, undeterred by the conflict that continues to divide the Gulf archipelago with which Britain first entered into a Treaty of Friendship in 1816. On 13 May, the conservative Daily Telegraph included a brash colour supplement about Bahrain, produced by PM Communications Limited, which in October produced a similar puff piece on Saudi Arabia. Ostensibly a (somewhat premature) celebration of 200 years of friendship, the supplement was an eight-page advertisement for Bahrain

Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani spent mid-February in South America. He and foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani visited three countries, meeting Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Ecuadorian leader Rafael Correa, and signing agreements.

Sheikh Zayed Bin Hamdan Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, was injured in a mid-August helicopter crash in Yemen. The crash resulted in four fatalities – one each from Al-Ain, Ras Al-Khaimah, Fujairah and Ajman. The 27-year-old sheikh is a grandson of late UAE president Sheikh Zayed and one of the six sons of former deputy prime minister (now the ruler’s representative in the Western region) Hamdan Bin Zayed. Sheikh Zayed graduated from Sandhurst in 2009 and served in the Presidential Guard. He recently married a daughter of Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed.

How quickly the most novel of announcements can become the new normal. The Saudi Press Agency reported on 9 December that, following a ten-year agreement between the General Sports Authority (GSA) and World Snooker, the kingdom would host “for the first time in its history, a world snooker championship”. Never shy of entering a lucrative new market, World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn called the 4-10 October 2020 Saudi Masters championship “a giant leap forward for our sport… For the fans in Saudi Arabia it is a wonderful opportunity to see the best players in the world competing for a huge title.”

The Ministry of Oil (MoO) was due to auction exploration and development contracts on 11 new blocks on 26 April, as GSN went to press. The blocks include onshore border areas with Iran and Kuwait and some offshore acreage. According to MoO, 14 firms have expressed interest in the auction, which has been delayed a number of times since being announced last November.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Paris on 21 November. While in the French capital, MBZ also met prime minister Edouard Philippe and armed forces minister Florence Parly. In a joint statement the two sides said they had agreed to organise a year-long French-Emirati Season in 2021 to mark the UAE’s 50th anniversary.

One of the more bizarre arguments put forward by the Obama administration as it pushed for military intervention in Syria was that failing to respond to the horrific chemical attack on Ghouta would send the wrong ‘message’ to Iran. On 3 September, secretary of state John Kerry mentioned Iran four times in his brief opening statement to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as he sought to convince them of the need to strike. “Iran is hoping you look the other way,” Kerry said. “Our inaction would surely give them a permission slip for them to at least misinterpret our intention if not to put it to the test.” Defence secretary Chuck Hagel took a similar tone. “Our refusal to act would undermine the credibility of America’s other security commitments, including the president’s commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Princess Deena Aljuhani Abdelaziz, the Saudi businesswoman married to Prince Sultan Bin Fahd Bin Nasir, has been fired from her role as editor-in-chief of Vogue Arabia after just two issues, due to differences in approach with the publisher Condé Nast International.

As the United States pushes for further sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme, China’s emergence as a major player in oil production threatens to undermine efforts to target the Islamic Republic’s besieged energy industry