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The impending E222m ($261m) transfer of Brazilian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior has set the club he has played for since 2013, Barcelona (sponsored by Qatar), against his new employer Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), which is owned by Qatar. Barca and Spanish La Liga officials complain PSG has violated the ‘financial fair play’ rules of football’s European governing body UEFA. Other observers believe the world-record transfer – which is more than twice the size of the previous mega-deal – sends another signal: that Qatar is carrying on with business as usual in terms of projecting its soft power muscle to underline its status as a small state with world class (and World Cup) ambitions.

As federal President Jalal Talabani asks prime minister-designate Nouri Al-Maliki to form a cabinet, there will follow 30 days of delicate negotiations. Maliki must also find at least 163 votes by 11 December in order for his government to be ratified. Some progress has been made.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is playing a canny game ahead of May’s general election. It is only ten months since Kuwait went to the polls – and two years since the previous election – a political cycle that illustrates the pattern of confrontation between parliamentarians and ministers which has repeatedly blocked legislation and approval of major projects.

Late October saw a flurry of activity in London aimed at boosting Gulf Co-Operation Council-UK ties. If the crowded programme had been the result of a co-ordinated plan by the UK’s (relatively) new coalition government it might be seen as a reaffirmation of UK-Gulf ties organised by a dynamic new administration.

Rare was the commentator who predicted that the overthrow of Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in (was it only?) mid-January would be followed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s demise and the probable overthrow of the even more entrenched Qadhafi regime in Libya.

Since Kuwait was the first Arab state to have a parliament in 1962, it is no stranger to voices of dissent and opposition within its governing system. It has a powerful and democratically elected National Assembly, with a strong sense of constitutional rights (GSN 891/1). This has earned the emirate a reputation for a vigorous political culture.

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.

The decision by the Shura-ye Negahban (Guardian Council) to cull all but seven names from the list of 592 people who had registered to run in the presidential election on 18 June was, on the surface, unsurprising.

Differences between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) and his Emirati counterpart, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) have been mounting ever since Riyadh led the way towards reconciliation with Qatar at the Al-Ula summit in January.

Bringing crowds on the streets, Saudi Arabia celebrated its first Founding Day on 22 February, following a royal order by King Salman Bin Abdelaziz in late January. The decision to base the celebrations on events in 1727 was particularly significant, as the new national holiday marks an implicit, but significant break from Wahhabi influence on the Saudi state.

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.