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MEETING IN CAIRO: King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz ended his holiday in Morocco on 20 June, and made a stop-off in Egypt for a brief official visit to the new president, Saudi-backed Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. It was his first official meeting overseas for some time, though the statement issued by state news agency SPA about his time in Cairo suggests he did not even get off the plane, instead welcoming Sisi and various ministers and officials on board before flying on to Jeddah.

The Iraqi government’s 20 December raids on staff of finance minister Rafi Al-Issawi triggered the strongest protests Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has faced since coming to power in 2006. The surge of anger in restive Al-Anbar combined with that over army presence and alleged prison rapes in Nineveh, and later spread to Salah Ad-Din and Sunni parts of Baghdad. In the weeks since, tens of thousands of Sunnis have poured onto the streets to express a range of frustrations, blocking the main trade route to Jordan and Syria, and sharpening the sectarian divide.

Government and company officials used the early November Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) to emphasise that plans to raise crude output to 3.5m b/d by 2017 (from 2.8m b/d now) have moved forward with orders for several major onshore and offshore projects.

The UAE’s first game-hunting resort is due to open in September. The Barari Hunting Resort near Al-Ain will feature 15 top-end villas (expected to cost upwards of $3,500 a night) and offer guests the chance to hunt gazelle, deer and possibly birds. The venture comes from Morouj Hotels and Resorts, a new hotel management company that describes itself as “100% Emirati” and is based in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia is at risk of falling into recession, after official data showed a contraction in Q1 2017 as a result of oil production cuts. (Recessions are generally defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline.) The economy shrank by 0.5% year-on-year in Q1 17, compared to growth of 1.2% in Q4 16.

As well as being an economic linchpin for the global and US economy, Qatar is also one of Washington’s trickiest regional partners, with internal politics and neighbouring Iran making this a less than straightforward relationship

Gulf drivers racked up parking fines of more than £426,000 ($562,000) in just one part of central London over the past year, according to figures released in late September by Westminster City Council, one of the city’s local authorities. The worst offenders were Qataris, who gathered fines of £191,105, followed by UAE drivers with £116,030, Saudis with £64,065, and Kuwaitis with £55,530 of dues. Gulf drivers were the only non-Europeans to make it into the list of the worst offenders and it was the first time Saudi Arabia had featured in the top ten.

Prince Abdelaziz, son of the late King Fahd, was in the news in mid-July as he vowed to block a series from being broadcast during Ramadan. He took umbrage at the Middle East Broadcasting Company’s (MBC’s) intention to show the ‘Umar Al-Farooq’ series about some of the Prophet Mohammed’s close companions.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and UAE Armed Forces deputy supreme commander Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) travelled to the Egyptian capital on 15 May for talks with President Abdel Fatah El Sisi, who greeted his guest at Cairo International airport. The meeting provided an opportunity for both leaders to publicly condemn the sabotage of four ships in waters near Fujairah and the Houthi drone attack on Saudi oil pipelines.

The rapid decline in crude oil prices – to around $87/bbl as GSN went to press, from a June peak of $115/bbl – poses an intriguing set of challenges for Gulf oil producers ahead of an important meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna on 27 November. On the table will be strategies for influencing the oil price in H1 2015, with key members of the cartel – notably Saudi Arabia and Iran – holding widely divergent views on tactics and outcomes.

The Al-Azm Retreat held in Abu Dhabi on 21 February was the latest manifestation of efforts by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to deepen bilateral relations, in the process reducing the potential for dangerous tensions to re-emerge (GSN 1,032/6). This rapprochement is the product of several factors, not least the strong personal relationship between two of the region’s most influential figures, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) (GSN 1,012/4).

Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, the long-serving Iranian governor at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), died in a Tehran hospital on 16 May, almost two weeks after going into a coma after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Opec secretary general Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo described him as “a cherished friend” in a letter of condolence sent to Iran’s petroleum minister Bijan Zangeneh.

Several senior Gulf royals convened in Istanbul for an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) on 13 December to discuss the US recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Kuwait, Oman and Qatar all sent high-ranking delegations, but others opted for more lowly officials, in another clear split in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) ranks – and a possible reflection of the close relations Abu Dhabi and Riyadh share with President Donald Trump.

List detailing sukuk transactions in 2009

An opposition delegation travelled to Europe in late January to discuss recent talks with Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, as the conflict between Bahrain’s leaders and the mainly Shiite opposition approaches its third anniversary. “Our main point to get across was the need for confidence-building measures to ensure a positive atmosphere during any talks,” one participant told GSN. “All meetings were constructive.” The delegation, which went to the British, French and German foreign ministries as well as the Middle East division of the European External Action Service, consisted of former MP and secretary-general of the Democratic Progressive Tribune Abdulnabi Salman, Waad secretary-general Radhi Almoosawi, and former Al-Wefaq MPs Abdul Jalil Khalil and Ali Al-Aswad.