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A drone strike on Arbat Airport in Sulaymaniyah governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in September killed three members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's elite Counterterrorism Group and wounded three others. Iraqi military officials blamed Turkey for the attack.

The UAE is facing further accusations it is using a field hospital in north-east Chad as a cover for supplying arms to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Lieutenant General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (often known as Hemedti), as well as to treat the militia group’s injured fighters.

The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) announced late September that First Lieutenant Hamad Khalifa Al-Kubaisi had succumbed to the injuries he had sustained during a Houthi attack on Bahraini forces on the Saudi/Yemen border four days earlier, becoming the fourth casualty from the incident.

The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) said on 26 October that a fifth serviceman, Major Mohammed Salem Mohammed Anber, had died one day earlier.

The potential for Iran’s 'Axis of Resistance' militia network to destabilise the wider region has been manifest in an alarming acceleration of attacks on bases hosting United States troops in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-backed militias.

In a major coup for Qatar, Doha has been credited with brokering a four-day truce in Gaza, which was due to come into effect as GSN was going to press, in a deal where Hamas would start freeing its 7 October hostages while Israel releases Palestinian prisoners from its jails. There is still a huge amount of work to do by international partners if a wider peace settlement is to be achieved, but what is clear is that Qatari actors have emerged as international players after years of effort to position Doha as a deal-broker that can be all things to all men.

The usual dizzying number of civil and military contracts were unveiled at the mid-November Dubai Airshow where, included among the 54 deals signed by the UAE government's Tawazun Council, was an air defence order with the unknown Black Diamond company, which GSN's research suggests is an Israeli venture created after Abu Dhabi's Abraham Accord was concluded.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani removed Lieutenant General Abdulwahab Al-Saadi as Counter Terrorism Service chief on 1 November.

Qatar has taken delivery of the last of four Italian-built Al-Zubarah class corvettes.

Saudi Arabia Newsletter: The present urgent political concerns of Saudi Arabian leaders may be concentrated on the latest Iranian irruption into Iraqi territory,' but not so exclusively that the breakdown of the King Hussein-Yasser Arafat joint peace process is not a matter of equal pre-occupation for the Saudi government.

President Hassan Rouhani’s adept international diplomacy secured a quick win on the nuclear front, with the interim agreement signed by Tehran and the P5+1 on 24 November (GSN 959/1) paving the way for a scaling back of the crippling sanctions regime, and potentially an end to Iran’s years of isolation. But now he faces the arguably more onerous task of ensuring Iran’s opening to the West is not frustrated by domestic interests, headed by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

A seven-member delegation from the UAE Coast Guard led by Brigadier General Mohammad Al-Ahbabi made an unexpected trip to Tehran on 30 July to meet their Iranian counterparts, according to local media reports in Iran (but unannounced by the UAE). It was the sixth such meeting between the two countries’ coastguards, but the first since October 2013 and a further sign of Abu Dhabi’s apparent appetite for a diplomatic solution to the threats to Gulf shipping.

The overhaul of the upper ranks of Iran’s defence and security apparatus has continued this month, with Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointing Brigadier General Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar as commander of the Basij volunteer forces, in a decree issued on 7 December.It is the latest in a string of senior appointments within Iran’s military establishment this year. Among others, in June Major General Mohammad Bagheri was appointed as Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, Iran’s highest military policy body, replacing the long-serving Major General Hassan Firouzabadi who had held the job since 1989.

Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri held a phone call with Saudi  defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman on 30 November, which Iranian media described as the first step towards developing bilateral defence ties.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on 22 April it had successfully launched a military satellite and placed it into orbit, ending a run of failed launches. The Noor (Light) satellite was carried on the Qassed rocket and launched from a site in Dasht-e Kavir, in central Iran. It coincided with the anniversary of the IRGC’s establishment in 1979. IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami said the satellite “can produce strategic added value for us, and it creates powerful grounds for us in intelligence warfare”.