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Making itself ever so useful, Qatar continues to act as an important bridge between its western allies and both the new hardline government of President Ebrahim Raisi in Iran and Afghanistan’s Taliban, in a process in which foreign affairs minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani (MBA) is playing an increasingly prominent role.

Qatar has appointed ambassadors to Riyadh and Cairo, in a further sign of the growing détente after the end of the boycott of Qatar by Egypt and the GCC-3 of Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in January.

Qatar’s foreign affairs minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani travelled to Tehran on 29 January, to pass on a message from the United States about the moribund 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The tentative rehabilitation of President Bashir Al-Asaad in the Gulf has continued, following the decision by the UAE to reopen its embassy in Damascus in December. A UAE-Syria Private Sector Forum was held in Abu Dhabi on 20 January, organised by the UAE Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Bahrain and Qatar said they would resume full diplomatic relations, following a meeting of senior officials at the headquarters of the GCC General Secretariat in Riyadh.

Almost 5,000 people have been evacuated from Sudan to Saudi Arabia since fighting broke out between rival generals in Khartoum on 15 April, the vast majority of them citizens of other countries.

Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah submitted her credentials as Kuwait's ambassador to the United States during a meeting with President Joe Biden in April. She is Kuwait's first female ambassador in Washington. 

Stephen Peter Day was a committed Arabist, while also being a guardian of British national interests – positions the diplomat, who has died aged 85, saw as complementary rather than incompatible. His conflicts could be with elements of the British establishment rather than with foreign governments, groups and individuals with whom he engaged with ease.

There has been widespread anger in the Gulf and the wider region after copies of the Koran were publicly burned in Sweden and Denmark. Scandinavian authorities have so far said they cannot prevent such episodes as they would be counter to freedom of speech (although they could constitute a hate crime).

Securing workable energy, economic and security relations with Turkey has even greater urgency for Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government as the KRG says it can no longer afford to pay its employees’ salaries due to the closure since late March of the vital crude oil export pipeline.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) visited Ethiopia in August for talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The two leaders oversaw the signing of more than a dozen memoranda of understanding and other deals. 

Ras Al-Khaimah Ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi held talks with the governor of Oman's Musandam region, Ibrahim Said Al-Busaidi. The talks covered ties between the two regions and followed a visit by Sheikh Saud to Muscat in June. 

The UAE set up a field hospital in Herat, western Afghanistan to help locals injured during a wave of severe earthquakes that killed more than 1,000 people. The UAE has also sent at least five aircraft with a total of 140 tonnes of aid, including food and tents.

UAE minister of state Sheikh Shakhbout Bin Nahyan Al-Nahyan and his Qatari counterpart Mohammed Bin Abdelaziz Bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi led their countries' delegations at the fourth meeting of the Quint Group on Somalia, held in Ankara. Others in the meeting included representatives of Somalia, Türkiye, the UK and the US.

The inclusion for the first time of an Arab party in an Israeli governing coalition adds a new dimension to the normalisation deals struck by Bahrain and the UAE last year and could enable further outreach to the Gulf.