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Information on the Covid-19 pandemic in Yemen remains unclear, with limited available data for much of December. United Nations agencies last reported 2.081 cases as of early December, with 606 fatalities and 1,383 recoveries.

Bahrain lost out in its bid for the presidency of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council in a secret ballot of the HRC’s 47 members on 15 January. Manama had proposed Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri as its candidate, upsetting the usual consensual process by which Fiji’s Nazhat Shameem Khan had been expected to go forward unopposed.

Risk Management Report – GSN Risk Grade – D↓4↓ Overview Politics: Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Bin Taimur Al-Said was named ruler in January 2020, succeeding the late Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said as the 15th ruler of the Al-Busaidi dynasty (founded in 1750).

Longstanding deputy foreign minister Khaled Al-Jarallah – for decades the late Emir Sheikh Sabah Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s right-hand man – has been replaced at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) by Jamal Al-Ghanem. The move signals a shift away from the Sheikh Sabah era, when much time and energy were devoted to foreign policy and regional diplomacy. It comes amid calls from opposition MPs for foreign affairs minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Sabah to also be replaced.

While some members of the Al-Shihu tribe who were connected to the Musandam separatist movement and received long jail sentences in March 2019 have been released, two others convicted at the same trial remain in prison. Both Rashed Saeed Al-Shehi and Aref Sultan Al-Shehi are Emirati citizens who have family connections to Musandam.

North Korea’s acting ambassador to Kuwait, Ryu Hyun Woo, defected to Seoul last year, in an episode first reported in the South Korea media on 25 January.

Two prominent Iranian and Saudi foreign policy veterans have called on their governments to engage in talks to resolve their differences. Former Iranian nuclear spokesman Hossein Mousavian and Jeddah-based Gulf Research Centre chairman Abdulaziz Sager said: “With the arrival of a new administration in Washington, the time has come to move from confrontation to dialogue”, in a joint piece published in UK-based weekly newspaper The Observer on 31 January.

Prince Turki Bin Nasser Bin Abdelaziz, former commander of the Dhahran Air Base during the 1990/91 Gulf War, Air Force deputy chief and overseer of the Al-Yamamah programme to buy Tornado jets from the UK, died in late January aged 72. The prince, a son-in-law of the late Crown Prince Sultan, became well known internationally following a series of articles in the mid-2000s by The Guardian and The Sunday Times newspapers which focused on allegations that the UK’s BAE Systems had operated a large slush fund to pay Saudi officials to smooth the path for big contracts.

The Final Report of the Panel of Experts on Yemen presented to the United Nations Security Council, published on 25 January, offered extensive detail on smuggling routes into Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, highlighting the difficulties of enforcing an effective sanctions regime while also allowing trade flows in essential goods to continue. With the illicit weapons trade largely orchestrated by Iran, the report identified a pattern of corruption and ineffective customs and border controls, even in countries opposed to the Houthis such as the UAE.

Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have begun to re-engage with Lebanon in recent weeks, although it is not clear to what extent their agendas might clash or coalesce. Qatari foreign affairs minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani travelled to Beirut for a series of meetings with senior figures on 9 February, in a sign Doha could be trying to forge a fresh political consensus for the country.

The government said it will not sign new contracts with international companies that do not base their regional headquarters in the kingdom, starting from January 2024. The 15 February announcement  covers all government agencies, institutions and funds, including Saudi Aramco, the Public Investment Fund and ministries.

Bank Markazi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran (Central Bank of Iran) has begun to release the first banknotes denominated in toman, which is destined to replace the rial. The first to appear were low-value 1, 2 and 5 toman notes, followed by the 10 toman note.

Risk Management Report – GSN Risk Grade – Abu Dhabi A1, Dubai A2↓ Overview Politics: At the top of each emirate are the rulers’ courts and their crown princes. In practice, only the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai make unilateral decisions and issue emiri decrees; most of the smaller emirates use legislation crafted at federal level.

The government has drawn up draft legislation that will lead to more oil revenues being placed into the Future Generations Reserve Fund (FGRF). Finance and national economy minister Sheikh Salman Bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa said the move would help to replace funds withdrawn during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Oil (MoO) has announced oil exports for February rose to 82.88m barrels, equivalent to an average 2.96m b/d, up from 2.87m b/d exported in December and January.