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A series of missile and drone attacks on the UAE killed two people but unnerved many more local residents in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as international allies. The strikes carried a clear political message, coming as the South Korean and Israeli presidents were visiting Mohammed Bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has been quick to react by bombing Houthi missile launch sites in Yemen, but it is clear that Abu Dhabi’s efforts to distance itself from the conflict over the past three years have not succeeded.

Recent developments Attempts continue to renew the ceasefire in Yemen, but the emphasis has switched to finding a permanent settlement. Much of recent diplomatic activity has been necessarily secret. Saudi Arabia appears more urgently determined to extract itself from the war.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani reshuffled the country’s security establishment in a series of decrees and orders, naming his brother and interior minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani as commander of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).

An unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) air defence commander has been sentenced by a Tehran military court to 13 years in prison for their role in the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran in January 2018.

Construction work is underway on a 2,400-metre runway on Abd Al-Kuri, the westernmost island in Yemen's Socotra archipelago, according to recent satellite imagery. Local press reports have said the UAE is behind the project, but there has been no official confirmation of its involvement.

A Yemen Coast Guard officer was killed in an exchange of fire with private security guards on the luxury yacht Kalizma off the coast of Al-Mahra governorate late April. A guard on the Cook Islands-flagged Kalizma was also wounded.

Iran could soon extend its burgeoning defence ties with Russia by providing fast attack craft for Russian naval forces to use in the Black Sea.

At least three border guards were killed late May, in clashes on the frontier between Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province and Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, amid rising tensions over water flows.

The UAE has signed a contract with Spain's Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E) to buy 516 of its Guardian 30 remote weapon stations. The units can be mounted on armoured vehicles and have a 30mm cannon, a 7.62mm machine gun and electro-optical targeting systems.

French-headquartered aerospace company Airbus is to set up a facility with Saudi Arabia's Scopa Industries Corporation to build military and civilian helicopters in the kingdom, following an agreement signed on the sidelines of the Saudi-French Investment Forum in Paris.

A Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) F-15 SA fighter jet crashed, and its crew was killed, on 26 July, while taking part in a training mission around the city of Khamis Mushait. It is the second serious incident involving an RSAF F-15 jet, after an F-15 S crashed last November, during a routine training mission in the King Abdelaziz Air Base training area in Eastern province.

Iran has released video imagery of a new jet-powered suicide drone, similar in configuration to the Shahed-136 drone which has been heavily used by Russia in Ukraine.

The UAE’s commitment to broadcasting its now overt relationship with Israel has seen cabinet ministers holding phone calls with their Israeli counterparts, the formal scrapping of the boycott of Israel on 29 August and an El Al plane landing at Abu Dhabi International Airport on 31 August carrying a delegation including US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Israel’s National Security Council leader Meir Ben-Shabbat.

While the United States is further building up its naval projection in the region, Chinese PLA Navy’s ships have continued to make port calls around the Gulf.

UAE Air Force (UAEAF) aircraft have started an airlift to Ethiopia, flying C-17 and C-130 cargo planes to the Ethiopian Air Force’s main base at Harar Meda military airport, 40km south-east of Addis Ababa.