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The 11 January assassination of nuclear procurement expert Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan is the latest string of killings targeting scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear sector

Defence minister and first deputy prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah has launched an inquiry into alleged corruption in the contracts signed in 2015-17 to buy the Eurofighter Typhoon jet and Airbus helicopters. A committee has been established to look into the deals, including representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Military Inspectorate and Military Justice Commission.It is not the first time these deals have attracted scrutiny: the helicopter was at the centre of a number of official investigations launched in 2017 and 2018.

The UAE finalised a defence security and co-operation agreement with Japan, with the deal signed by minister of state for defence affairs Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Bowardi and Japan’s minister of state for defence Tomohiro Yamamoto in the Defence Ministry in Tokyo on 12 May. Al-Bowadi also held talks with Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency commissioner Suzuki Yoshiyuki.Japan has traditionally taken a very cautious approach to arms exports and defence technology transfer, so any developments in this area are liable to be slow-moving.

Ever-prominent in regional diplomacy, Qatar has also encouraged dialogue with Tehran. State minister for foreign affairs Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah told the Munich Security Conference on 5 February that tightening sanctions would aggravate the situation.

Saudi women are being recruited to the armed forces for the first time, albeit with heavy restrictions on who can apply and what jobs they can be appointed to.Among the 12 criteria set out by the General Directorate of Public Security, any applicants must have been born and raised in Saudi Arabia, unless their father worked abroad in a government job.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said there had been positive progress on negotiations about the possible purchase of Rafale fighter planes, following talks between the visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

The United States’ Central Command (Centcom) in late February submitted its ‘unfunded priorities’ list to Congress. On top of its 2021 budget request submitted earlier in February, Centcom commander US Marine Corps General Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie wants an extra $371m to increase intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capacity in the region, and to conduct, inform and influence activities against “malign state actors and their proxies”. McKenzie also wants $21m to build up facilities at the Omani port of Duqm.

The British Ministry of Defence is advertising to fill a number of senior adviser roles to be embedded within the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defence (MoD). The recruitment is one of the initiatives flowing from the strategic partnership agreement set up by then UK prime minister Theresa May and the Saudi defence minister, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, following their March 2018 meeting in London.

Iraq’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been hostile for some time, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s 9 March interview with France 24 upped the ante. In a 20-minute interview filmed at the opulent presidential residence in Baghdad, Maliki – with the 30 April general election in his sights – unequivocally accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting terrorism in Syria and Iraq, going so far as to say that “Iraq’s sectarian and terrorist crisis is primarily the responsibility of these two countries”. “I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and through the media, of supporting them with money and buying arms for them,” Maliki told journalist Marc Perelman in a measured tone. “I accuse them of declaring an open war against the Iraqi government. I also accuse them of sheltering the leaders of Al-Qaeda and takfiris...”

The US and UAE have signed an agreement on co-operation in the fight against cross-border crime, and the exchange of information. According to state news agency Wam, interior minister Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan recently witnessed the signing of the agreement in Abu Dhabi by Abu Dhabi police’s director-general of police operations Major General Mohammed Bin Al-Awadhi Al-Menhali, on behalf of the interior ministry, and homeland security investigations deputy executive associate director Peter Edge, on behalf of the US.

In early October, recently appointed deputy defence minister Prince Salman Bin Sultan Bin Abdelaziz attended the closing events of the British-Saudi Exercise Red Alligator 3 in Jazan Region. The prince was pictured in Al-Riyadh attending a weapons demonstration, which included a 40mm grenade launcher.

The arrival of Crown Prince and defence minister Mohammed Bin Salman in Paris on 8 April proved a useful opportunity for activists to turn up the heat on the government of President Emmanuel Macron over French arms deals with Riyadh. France is the third largest supplier of defence equipment to Saudi Arabia, accounting for 3.6% of total imports in 2013-17, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri); it is comfortably eclipsed by the UK (23% of total Saudi imports) and the United States (61%).

Manohar Parrikar was due to set out for the Gulf as GSN went to press, visiting Oman on 20-21 May and the UAE on 22-23 May. He is the first Indian defence minister to visit the UAE. According to Indian media reports, the trip was delayed by a few days because of “scheduling issues” or because Parrikar had been ill. The UAE and Indian air forces are due to conduct a joint exercise later in May. UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan discussed defence co-operation at a meeting with Parrikar in New Delhi last September 2015.

President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree on 3 June naming General Hassan Ali Turkmani assistant vice president. The US Navy is to take over the former commercial port at Mina Salman.

The Saudi leadership’s announcement that it was ending $3bn financial support for Lebanon to buy French arms under a controversial deal struck in 2013 and signed in November 2014, together with a further $1bn to support Lebanon’s security services, has brought to a head a long period of deteriorating relations between Riyadh and its Sunni allies in Beirut. King Salman Bin Abdelaziz has previously told Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam the French arms deal – lobbied for by President François Hollande – was “on track” and “irreversible”, but for several months it has been increasingly apparent the three-way Don Arabie Saoudite (Donas – Saudi Arabia Gift) was going nowhere.