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As GSN has long reported, the UAE has an unparalleled record in the region as a force contributor to international military missions (GSN 906/1, 811/5). The UAE undertook ambitious peacekeeping operations relatively soon after the federation was formed.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan will pay an official visit to China from 27-29 March

The Syrian crisis is providing another arena for increasingly aggressive covert operations campaigns in the region, which have drawn both on subsidised proxies and on the Gulf’s fast-developing special forces capabilities. GSN analyses the GCC’s revived taste for covert activity

The UAE cabinet has approved a draft of a new companies law, which is expected to be published in the next few months and may help further open up the UAE for foreign investment.

Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has acted to counter purported Iranian influence in Yemen’s Houthi uprising.

Dubai has completed financing for phase one of the $1.08bn Al Sufouh tram project, to be built by a consortium of US and European companies.

With Egypt’s political future still uncertain, close relationships between business elites have made it possible for Gulf nations to continue business as usual

Saudi Arabia avoided a clash with Cairo in April 2011, when Saudi business tycoon Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal returned 75,000 feddans (77,850 acres) of a total 100,000 feddans of agricultural land bought in 1997 by his Kingdom Agricultural Development Company.

The uproar following Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yusuf Al Qaradawi’s criticism of the UAE has escalated further, drawing in the Arab League, Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), Muslim Brotherhood and UAE and Egyptian ministers.

In the early hours of 6 March, Dubai Police arrested Saleh Al Dhufairi at his home in Ras Al Khaimah. An Emirati associated with the Jamiat Al Islah wa Tawjih (Association for Reform and Guidance), which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, Dhufairi was accused of “incitement through writing or verbally spreading ideas that damage national unity or social peace”, according to state news agency WAM.

It is not just in diplomatic circles that Qatar punches above its weight. The small Gulf country of around 1.9m people has topped Forbes’ list of the world’s richest countries, published on 22 February.

Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been on an official visit to Canada, where he met Prime Minister Stephen Harper and foreign minister John Baird.

On 10 February, up to 2,000 people gathered outside Syria’s consulate in Dubai to protest against the Syrian regime. There were no reports of altercations or arrests.

The daughter of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has married

Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) remains resolutely in command. Until Dubai’s indebtedness was revealed in 2008-09, the emirate’s other most influential powerbrokers tended not to be members of the ruling family. Since the debt crisis, Dubai has seen the emergence of the next generation of the Al-Maktoum, MBR’s sons