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Khalaf Abdel Rahman Hamid Al-Rumaithi was extradited from Jordan to the UAE. He was convicted in the UAE on terrorism-related charges in a notorious mass trial in 2013. Now a Turkish citizen and resident in Turkey, but formerly a senior civil servant in the UAE, Al-Rumaithi was arrested by the Jordanian authorities when visiting Amman.

Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants trying to cross the border from Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023. The Saudi government said the allegations were "unfounded".

China's first consul general in Bandar Abbas, Xu Wei, has taken up his post following the opening of the Iranian port city outpost in December. It is China's first diplomatic presence outside Tehran.  The consulate will cover provinces across southern Iran. 

The recent decision by Iraq's Constitutional Court to annul a 2013 law that regulated the use of the Khor Abdullah waterway shared with Kuwait has continued to cause diplomatic waves, with Kuwait rallying its international friends and partners to put pressure on Baghdad over the decision. 

Iran and Djibouti have agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations that were severed by the African country in 2016 following the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The decision follows the recent rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

A meeting of the Unesco World Heritage Committee, held in Riyadh, caused a diplomatic stir when it voted to include the pre-historic site of Tell Es Sultan near Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine. Israel objected to the decision. 

The extent to which Iran knew about, or helped with, the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel remains a point of conjecture. Some were quick to point the finger of suspicion at the Tehran regime, which is undoubtedly a major supplier of military materiel to Hamas and the driving force behind the 'Axis of Resistance' that is now confronting Israel.

A 30-member Taliban delegation led by Afghanistan’s acting deputy prime minister for economic affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar travelled to Tehran early November to discuss economic co-operation. Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held separate talks with Baradar the same day.

Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) President Nechirvan Barzani met France’s President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace in Paris early November. The discussions covered bilateral relations between France and Iraq, and the KRI in particular, as well as the potential impact of the Israel-Hamas war on Iraq. 

Omani officials appear confident that, despite international diplomatic attention having largely switched to the Gaza conflict, a peace settlement can be achieved soon between the warring factions in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, with all parties now appearing to recognise that ending the civil war is in their overwhelming political interest.

The organisational structure of Hamas is clouded in secrecy, but the current war – and negotiations to bring it to an end – mean it is now critical for Israel and other parties to understand how the group operates and makes its decisions.

Iraq joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in November, taking the London-based multilateral's number of shareholders to 74. Joining the bank means Baghdad will be able to apply for financial and policy support from the EBRD.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said has returned from back-to-back state visits to Asian powerhouses Singapore and India, in which boosting business was very high on the agenda.

The UAE’s latest Cepa agreement is another step in Abu Dhabi’s plans to build its global profile by negotiating bilateral trade deals.

From the ruling family’s Al-Muqrin branch, new Saudi ambassador in Madrid Princess Haifa Bint Abdelaziz previously served as the kingdom’s envoy to the UN’s cultural and educational arm Unesco.