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Tough judicial and security interventions undermine King Abdullah’s overtures to Shias and Ismailis as Prince Nayef and his allies grow more assertive

For all their power and wealth, few among the Saudi merchant class attained the level of fame of Khalid Bin Mahfouz

Various princes have begun returning to Saudi Arabia at the conclusion of their summer holidays, including several who had been staying in Morocco with Crown Prince Sultan.

Still convalescing in Morocco, Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz has had visits at his Agadir palace from Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Rumour and uncertainty continue to plague the high-profile former envoy to Washington. Controversy over the whereabouts of former Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdelaziz has been reignited by comments made on Iran’s Al-Alam TV by the exiled Islamist oppositionist Saad Al-Fagih.

The clarity of GCC legal systems and their treatment of foreign creditors have fallen under the spotlight as two debt-laden Saudi conglomerates troubles’ percolate through into the wider trade finance and insurance communities

Lawsuits and rating downgrades have set three significant Gulf business families – Saudi Arabia’s Al-Gosaibis, Al-Saneas and the UAE’s Al-Ghurairs – against each other (GSN 855/13). Recently, the Dubai-based, Al-Ghurair-owned Mashreq Bank filed lawsuits in New York against AHAB and its subsidiary TIBC involving a failed $75m currency exchange.

Recent allegations in regional media – perhaps encouraged by senior officials in their host countries – of serious political shake-ups in the military establishment and ruling family – suggest all is not well in Qatar’s regional relations, even after a year when Doha has made serious efforts to mend fences with Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani (HBJ) travelled in late July to Morocco to visit Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz.

The credit shadows that have fallen over the Middle East in 2009 are afflicting some of the official export credit agencies (ECAs) based in the region and further afield. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have moved to the centre of ECA scanners in the past couple of months, but it is the UAE that most preoccupies official insurers, GSN was told in a survey of regional and international market sentiment.

Gulf rulers have been to visit a more sprightly looking Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz, who remains in Agadir. Before travelling to Morocco, King Abdullah held talks in Jeddah. Acting Riyadh governor Prince Sattam Bin Abdelaziz performed funeral prayers. Ibn Saud’s former pilot, Captain Joe Grant, now 101 years old, continued to be fêted. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has been in Washington to hold talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Timothy Geithner’s first visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE since becoming US Treasury Secretary highlighted again the important role Gulf Co-operation Council governments play in the global economy, and the fact that the strategic alliances between the United States and GCC polities have been central to maintaining the regional status quo. Not only are all the GCC economies, except for Kuwait, pegged to the dollar, but they are also the largest foreign investors in US stocks.

Senior Saudi princes were seen lining up to praise King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz during recent celebrations of the fourth anniversary of the pledge of allegiance (bayaa) to the new monarch. Several of the most senior princes wrote special speeches, with observers pointing to a strict protocol and hierarchy in how they were reported.

The King is overseeing a programme of cautious change, but is reluctant to ease the family hold on real power or alienate powerful religious interests. It takes fine political judgment to bolster the position of his Shammar branch of the family without provoking a rift with the Sudeiris and other powerful factions

Backed by one of the world’s wealthiest governments, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company is already a major player in ten countries in the GCC, Europe, North America and Africa. Iraq will soon become its next play, chief executive Peter Barker-Homek told GSN

Dealing with a growing number of returned prisoners from Guantanamo Bay is burdening an already complex process of putting terror suspects on trial, testing relationships between states and exacerbating sectarian rifts