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Specialist projects tracker MEED Projects says the net value of projects underway around the region fell in 2016 by $61bn, the first time the figure has fallen since it began collecting data in 2004. While $105bn of contract awards were made in 2016, this was outweighed by the $166bn of contacts completed during the year. Almost all markets saw activity decline last year, with the one exception being Bahrain, the smallest market. Saudi Arabia performed worst, with a net loss of $30bn.

An attack on the Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (Islamic Consultative Assembly – parliament) and on the shrine of former Rahbar (supreme leader) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran on 7 June left at least 12 dead and 42 injured. Islamic State (IS or Daesh) claimed responsibility. Seven attackers reportedly died – four at the parliament and three at the mausoleum. There have been a string of deadly attacks by different groups in north-west and south-east Iran in recent months but the targets chosen in this attack put it in a different category of seriousness.

The US government has approved the purchase of a National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (Nasams) at a cost of $215m, the State Department .announced on 27 November; it includes 40 missiles, along with missile containers, navigation equipment and various other training and service elements. The system from Raytheon Missiles Systems will enhance Qatar’s ability to deal with regional threats and will strengthen its homeland defence, by providing protection from cruise missiles, aircraft, helicopter and drone attacks, the State Department said.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal noted on his Twitter feed on 14 April that allowing Saudi women to drive would be economically beneficial, and seemed to suggest it could help Saudi Arabia’s problems with illegal migrants.

An international arbitration panel examining the failed deal between Crescent Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to supply gas to the UAE has determined that the 25-year contract was valid and binding, and that NIOC has therefore been obligated to deliver gas since December 2005, according to a 10 August statement from Crescent’s partner Dana Gas. Crescent said it now hopes to resolve matters through “constructive discussions” with NIOC; there are still a number of hurdles to overcome before gas might flow.

The board of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Companyhas appointed Khalid Al-Rumaihi as chief executive of the sovereign wealth fund.Al-Rumaihi has been a board member and headed Mumtalakat’s investment strategy since 2015. He is also chief executive of the influential Economic Development Board (EDB), and chairman of Bahrain Real Estate Investment (Edamah) and Bahrain Development Bank. He sits on the boards of National Bank of Bahrain, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority and National Oil & Gas Authority (Noga).

Travelling directly from Muscat, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Doha on 2 October ahead of talks with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and foreign minister Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani the following day. He is the most senior Iranian official to visit Qatar since the start of the dispute between Doha and its erstwhile Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) allies. Sheikh Tamim was reported in the Iranian media as telling Zarif that Qatar welcomed Iran’s role in regional crises, saying “continued consultation with regional countries, including Iran, is an undeniable necessity.”

US Republican senator John McCain posted a photograph of himself with Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdelaziz on Twitter on 5 December, following their meeting in Riyadh. “Good mtg today w/ Crown Prince Salman,” McCain said. Also that day, McCain met interior minister Mohammed Bin Nayef Bin Abdelaziz at his office in Riyadh. The interior ministry said the two men discussed “a number of issues of mutual concern to the two countries”; US chargé d’affaires Timothy Lenderking also attended.

The 3 January presentation of diplomatic credentials by the new Saudi and Lebanese ambassadors, Walid Al-Yaacoub and Fawzi Kabbara, restores a sheen of respectability to a long-standing relationship that was undermined by prime minister Saad Hariri’s allegedly forced resignation, made in Riyadh at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)’s behest. Some of the heat has been taken out of that situation, but Riyadh appears determined to continue with a more activist policy across the Levant, even at the risk of creating more instability.

Tehran’s insistence that it can continue selling its crude oil to customers across the globe is being tested – not least by signs that its once-staunch ally China may be wobbling under pressure from the United States. Conventional wisdom had it that Beijing’s strategic interests in Iran would compel it to challenge the US sanctions regime. However, Sino-Iranian trade seems to have dropped sharply since Washington imposed further sanctions on Iran in early November.

Deputy prime minister for the Council of Ministers Sayyid Fahd Bin Mahmoud Al-Said received Estonia premier Taavi Roivas on Sultan Qaboos Bin Said’s behalf, during his official visit to the sultanate – an event intended to cement a deepening relationship and involving a large number of government ministers and other officials. The Baltic News Service focused on the “many e-services available in Oman [that] are bearing the ‘Made in Estonia’ label”, with moves to expand co-operation in IT, culture, education and tourism. Roivas looked forward to investment protection and double taxation agreements to be concluded soon.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa appointed his son, Crown Prince Salman, first deputy prime minister on 11 March, a move widely perceived as conciliatory towards the opposition. Royal decree 14 named Salman, who is already deputy supreme commander of the Bahrain Defence Force, “First Deputy Premier for the Development and Performance of the Executive Authority’s Bodies”. 
It is a role with potential, given the urgency of institutional reform

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz received Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma at his palace in Jeddah on 7 May. The West African president also received Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef and Mecca governor Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. Koroma came with a big delegation including five ministers. On 8 May Koroma met with Islamic Development Bank (IDB) president Dr Bandar Hajjar to discuss the Jeddah-based multilateral’s support for agriculture, infrastructure and post-Ebola recovery projects. recovery plan.

The Saudi bombing of targets in Yemen has underlined the potential for the crisis in the poor and populous southern Arabian state to flare into wider conflict (see Risk management report – Saudi Arabia). Escalation of the crisis also poses major problems for opposition forces within the country, who are well aware of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ability to turn a political and humanitarian drama to his advantage.

For the first time since it was invaded by its neighbour in 1990, the government has pledged $100m in aid for Iraq to support projects in areas retaken from Islamic State (IS or Daesh), officials said. It will be directed through Iraq’s Reconstruction Fund for Areas Affected by Terrorist Operations, set up by the government in 2015.