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Amid their growing distance from western powers, Gulf states have continued to try and maintain a neutral stance on the Ukraine crisis. However, a weakened Russia could lead to the GCC powers stepping up their outreach to the pariah state of President Bashar Al-Assad’s Syria. That engagement has been energetically driven by the UAE, whose foreign affairs and international co-operation minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited the Syrian capital in November for talks with Assad.

Allies of Iran-backed Shia party Hizbollah under-performed in Lebanon’s 15 May parliamentary elections, when they failed to secure a majority in the 128-seat National Assembly. The shake-up to the Lebanese political environment offers new opportunities for Gulf states that may be thinking about re-engaging with Beirut after a period of keeping their distance.

After months of failed efforts to form a new government, Shia leader Moqtada Al-Sadr’s call for his 73 Council of Representatives (parliament) members (MPs) to resign has thrown the Iraqi political scene into fresh turmoil.

The expensively assembled Qatari football team has performed less well than desired on the pitch, losing their three Fifa World Cup games and finishing bottom of their group. But for the Qatari authorities, the sport itself was always a secondary consideration. Hosting the tournament has given the country a convening power, drawing in heads of state and senior government figures from around the world (and not just from the countries competing at the tournament).

The entertainment revolution promised by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)’s Vision 2030 will bring the world’s fastest rollercoaster and other attractions to the huge Qiddiya entertainment city, when it opens in 2023. Meanwhile, mesures to lift travel restrictions on women have been welcomed, while the kingdom’s latest reshuffle has been widely interpreted as accelerating moves to list Saudi Arabian Oil Company on local and international stock markets – which will underline Aramco’s status as the world’s biggest oil exporter and further integrate the kingdom into the global economy.

Alongside the bigger question of what imprint the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis in Yemen will leave on the region is another fascinating question for those with a taste for the intrigues of Saudi royal politics: from where, and whom, did Saudi Arabia’s new assertive position come? Attempts to reply to a large extent fall into the realm of palace speculation, but there are several things worth noting. Saudi Arabia’s willingness and ability to organise and lead such a high-profile campaign is a sign both that the new ruler is happy to assert his regional leadership, and that the broader leadership is less afflicted by the sense of drift which pervaded the last of King Abdullah’s years.

A day after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) embarked on his tour of fellow Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) member states – starting with Oman where he met Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said on 6 December – there was an inconvenient reminder of how hard it is to venture any further afield and how past decisions continue to constrain the Saudi strongman.

They may not see eye to eye on many issues but, in their different ways, all Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) members have made themselves useful to Donald Trump, as the US president seeks to tick off his regional policy points ahead of a bid for re-election in November. Trump’s “Deal of the Century” to wrap up to the Israel-Palestine conflict requires key Arab allies, led by Saudi Arabia, to play an expensive leading role; they have paid lip service to the plan despite public reluctance to support arrangements that cannot play well on the street.

The outbreak of fighting between rival generals in Sudan in mid-April has been met with an increasingly active diplomatic stance by Saudi Arabia, which has taken a clear lead among Gulf countries in responding to the crisis  – offering further evidence of the new approach being taken to international relations by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).

Commerce spoke louder than diplomacy when the state-owned QatarEnergy announced a ten-year deal to supply condensate to the Dubai government-owned Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc). It represents the first major commercial deal since the two Gulf Co-operation Council partners (or mainly, in recent years, rivals) agreed in June to reopen their respective embassies.

It is almost a year since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested in Tehran for failing to adhere to Iran's strict dress code for women. She died in police custody on 16 September, prompting nationwide outrage which soon morphed into the "Women, Life, Freedom" protest movement. The Iranian government has been nervously preparing for the anniversary of Amini's death, by targeting protestors and their supporters.

Conservative tribal and Islamist voices are increasing their power and influence in the Kuwaiti political arena, with the government providing tacit support to their growing dominance over liberal and urban merchant figures.

The turmoil that has broken out in Israel and Gaza in recent days may lead to a recalibration by Yemen's Houthis of what they should put on their list of demands and how much pressure they can exert on Saudi Arabia in any further rounds of talks. It might also concentrate minds in Riyadh about the need to secure a viable settlement in Yemen, so that the land beyond its southern border is not a long-term harbour of potential danger.

The latest Israeli-Palestinian flare-up is an all-too familiar expression of scarcely bottled-up frustrations in the West Bank and Gaza, which the aggressive departure from any two-state solution by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his allies has exacerbated (GSN 1,097/1). GSN’s analysis of social media shows that, in the era of the Abraham Accords (GSN 1,109/1), the crisis – which began in the Jerusalem suburb of Sheikh Jarrah and spread more widely before focusing on Gaza and then, on 18 May, triggering mass protests on the West Bank – has exposed new rifts in attitudes. The ‘Arab street’ hasn’t disappeared – it has gone online.

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, newly named Emir of Qatar, stands out not just because of the sleek manner of his accession, but because of his youth. Born on 3 June 1980, Tamim had only just celebrated his 33rd birthday when he assumed the role for which he has spent more than a decade preparing. In a culture where respect is very linked to age, holding his own among his senescent Gulf counterparts will require some steel. Three of the five other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) heads of state are more than double his age; the closest in years, at 63, is Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa.