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Tehran has released Spanish football fan Santiago Sanchez after 15 months in custody, but at least ten other Europeans are thought to be held in Iran, including Swedish national Johan Floderus. Critics accuse Tehran of using them as leverage to secure the release of Iranian officials convicted in Europe.

Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri held a phone call with Saudi  defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman on 30 November, which Iranian media described as the first step towards developing bilateral defence ties.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nedaja)’s newest vessel, the frigate Deylaman, officially joined its Caspian Sea fleet in late November. The ship is the seventh Moudge-class vessel, a design of light frigate based on the British-built Vosper Thorneycroft Mk5 Alvand.

Saudi Arabia is leading a fresh effort from the Gulf to assert its regional influence in an attempt to bring the Gaza war to an end, there has been no indication that Israel would consider reducing the intensity of its relentless bombing campaign as it seeks vengeance for the brutal Hamas assault of 7 October.

Houthi spokesman Brigadier Yahya Saree said that the Yemeni group's forces had launched ballistic and cruise missiles at Israeli targets in the occupied Palestinian territories. Houthi Political Council member Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti added that the attack had been carried out despite calls from the US, passed on via Omani mediators, for the Houthis not to intervene.

A 30-member Taliban delegation led by Afghanistan’s acting deputy prime minister for economic affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar travelled to Tehran early November to discuss economic co-operation. Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held separate talks with Baradar the same day.

Iran’s consul general in Jeddah Hassan Zarnegar Abarqouie left Tehran early November to take up his post, eight months after Saudi Arabia and the Islamic republic agreed to restore diplomatic ties in a China-brokered deal. 

The potential for Iran’s 'Axis of Resistance' militia network to destabilise the wider region has been manifest in an alarming acceleration of attacks on bases hosting United States troops in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-backed militias.

Even before the new Gaza war shattered comfortable assumptions about regional security, the global economic climate had been hostile, as shown in analysis of the International Monetary Fund's new reports on the global outlook and regional economic performance.

The 'Axis of Resistance' bloc of state and non-state actors, Shia and Sunni militias, has been long in the making, as Iran's revolutionary elite has sought to project its influence via a disparate group of organisations ranged across the Middle East. Its components are of differing sizes and capabilities, and their links to Iran also vary.

China's People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has used a routine rotation of its ships based in Djibouti to double its presence in the region, just as the United States Navy is preparing to deploy its first aircraft carrier strike group (CSG) to the region for two years.

Iran's parliament issued a report recommending that possession of equipment for the satellite internet service Starlink should be made a criminal offence. Deputies have also called for Iran to develop its own low-orbit internet satellite system, in co-operation with China and Russia.

In a surprise announcement, the Iranian authorities said that the length of mandatory military service had been cut by three months.  Military service will now range from between 14 and 21 months, depending on the location and mission of a conscript.

Eight years after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal was adopted, a wave of restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme have automatically fallen away. The US, Europe and others have vowed to keep up the pressure, imposing fresh restrictions on Iran, but the flows of drones and other weapons from Iran to Russia – and perhaps other consumers – seems only likely to increase.

Iran has discovered its largest-ever dry gas field at Lamerd, in the south of Shiraz province, petroleum minister Javad Owji announced during a visit to provincial capital Fars. The discovery is estimated to contain reserves of 623bcm of natural gas.