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Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Bin Saqr Al-Nayhan looks set to take over struggling Derby County football club, after the English Football League (EFL) approved a proposed deal involving Derventio Holdings, controlled by Sheikh Khaled’s Bin Zayed International. A deal has been agreed in principle with Derby’s owner Mel Morris, who has been talking to Derventio since May.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and French major Total have started production of the UAE’s first unconventional gas from the Ruwais Diyab gas concession, 200km west of Abu Dhabi city.

There has been renewed speculation about the extent of the wealth Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa left behind, following the long-standing prime minister’s death at the age of 84 on 11 November. The scale of Sheikh Khalifa’s fortune is unknown but it is believed to be substantial, with many of the dealings hidden by the use of agents and family members.

Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has seen some key officials put in place, after taking over from long-standing premier the late Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said gave his first National Day speech as ruler on 18 November. He reviewed some of the reforms made since he took office, including changes to the council of ministers to enhance the government’s performance, a decentralisation of power to governorates and a renewed push for fiscal sustainability.

Sheikh Ahmed Bin Nasser Bin Jassim Al-Thani was appointed ambassador to Russia in a 23 November emiri decree. He is identified as a grandson of Qatar’s founder Sheikh Jassim Bin Mohammed.

The vulnerability of Saudi oil infrastructure was underlined by two separate incidents in late November. At 3.50am local time on 23 November, a fuel tank at a distribution terminal north of Jeddah was hit by a missile that Houthi rebels said they had fired from Yemen. A Ministry of Energy spokesman said the explosion had caused a fire but there were no casualties and Saudi Aramco’s fuel supplies to customers were not affected.

Manama has put forward Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri as a surprise candidate for the 2021 presidency of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council. The role is usually agreed by consensus and Fiji’s Nazhat Shameem Khan had been expected to be the only candidate, but Bahrain’s decision to nominate Bucheeri has thrown the process into some confusion.

Dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam is facing execution after the Supreme Court upheld a death sentence against him. Zam had been living in exile in France, from where he ran the Amad news service; he was captured by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp in 2019 and brought back to Iran.

Former ambassador to the US and UK, and intelligence chief, Prince Turki Al-Faisal had strong words of criticism for Israel during his appearance at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on 5 December. Saying he was speaking in a personal capacity – Turki’s robust views are often interpreted outside the kingdom as reflecting an official view – he described Israeli governments as “the last of the western colonising powers of the Middle East”.

A prominent Saudi-American doctor was sentenced to six years in prison on 8 December, despite pressure from the Trump administration to drop the charges, and allow Walid Fitaihi and his family to travel, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

Risk Management Report – GSN Risk Grade – C ↑ 3↓ The Al-Khalifas came to power in 1783, driving the Persian empire from the archipelago. The British empire entered into an alliance with the Al-Khalifa 200 years ago; only in 1971 did Bahrain declare independence.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) has rejected allegations, filed in a 106-page complaint to a US court, that he sent the so-called Tiger Squad to Canada to kill exiled Saad Al-Jabri. In court filings, MBS said Jabri was trying to conceal his own crimes; the Saudi authorities say the former intelligence chief, who was close to former crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, was guilty of grand corruption.

Prime minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah has made widespread changes to the cabinet following the December election, with only five ministers retaining their posts from the previous government. Notable returnees are foreign affairs minister Sheikh Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah and health minister Sheikh Dr Basil Hmoud Hamad Al-Sabah.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s government announced on 19 January it was pushing back the planned date for elections to the Council of Representatives (parliament) to 10 October. Al-Kadhimi had previously called for the election to be held on 6 June, a year earlier than required. Early elections were a key demand of those involved in protests which began in October 2019 and have continued sporadically since.