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Plenty of financial issues remain to be resolved, and analysts observe that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) is still less prominent on the world stage than he was before becoming UAE premier in 2006. But something of the old strut is returning to Dubai.

Bahrain basked in a return to international prominence, as Manama hosted the 25-26 June Peace to Prosperity conference – the ‘economic workshop’ organised by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner as a first public step towards delivering US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So often overlooked as the smallest part of the GCC-3 alliance alongside its bigger neighbours Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Bahrain claimed to be playing a significant role in pursuing a major international relations goal.

When the renowned Doha-based Egyptian cleric and scholar Yusef Al-Qaradawi launched a fierce attack on Shiites – whom he deemed heretics – for supposedly infiltrating and undermining Sunni societies, he provoked dismay even among many of those who have hitherto listened to his views with respect. Then he chose to reaffirm his discomfiting message, dispelling any question that he could have been misquoted or misunderstood by the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm on the first occasion.

So President Barack Obama is back in the White House, and it is time to get back to work. But the US vote for continuity will not prompt much celebration in the Iranian corridors of power. Several hours after the result was in, the Iranian state news agency Irna made no mention of US politics, although it did post a story saying the prevailing world system “is already meeting its doomed end”.

Confronted yet again by damaging rumours, Saudi sources moved quickly to quash a 10 February report that King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz was seriously ill or was dead, apparently having suffered a heart attack after a heated telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama.

Egypt’s role in the alliance gathered behind Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s efforts to crush the Houthi rebellion suggests the ‘sleeping giant’ of Middle East politics has not entirely withdrawn from its central role in regional diplomacy. Cairo still plays an important part in mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, most recently in trying to heal the fratricidal rift between Fatah and Hamas. But otherwise, Egypt under 81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak seems to have long parted from its Nasserite status as a critical hub for Arab political and cultural thought and action.

The Bahrain government appears unwavering in its determination to crush what is left of the country’s peaceful opposition movement. The arrest on 13 June of Bahrain Commission for Human Rights president Nabeel Rajab and, a day later, the closure of the main opposition party, Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has been followed by a decision announced on 20 June to strip prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim of his citizenship. Since then, Rajab was hospitalised with an irregular heartbeat, supporters reported on 28 June, while Al-Wefaq’s lawyers complained of administrative blockages as they sought to prepare their case.

A 4 November announcement by the state Bahrain News Agency (BNA) has thrown into doubt the kingdom’s continued acceptance of its boundaries with Qatar. The neighbour’s long-standing territorial dispute that had marred their mutual relations for much of the 20th century had seemingly been resolved by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in March 2001. Its ruling divided disputed territories between the two countries – awarding the Hawar Islands to Bahrain, while Qatar got the neighbouring Janan Island and the fort and ruined town of Zubara – and set out a maritime boundary.

Qatar has at last announced plans for elections in 2013, nine years after a new constitution granted legislative powers to a semi-elected Majlis Al-Shura (Consultative Council). Under the 2003 constitution, 30 of the Shura’s 45 members will be elected for four-year terms; they will have the right to propose laws, approve the state budget and question the prime minister and ministers.

Gulf States Newsletter has launched a new website which we hope will enhance subscribers’ use of GSN and its associated resources. The Twittersphere and other, even less benign environments may speculate on GSN’s ownership – hardly surprising as so many media outlets show little or no sign of having either subscription revenue or advertising income.

The latest report by the Panel of Experts on Yemen to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), released in late January, has highlighted how all parties to the conflict are guilty of economic profiteering which, alongside the fighting and human rights violations, is exacerbating the country’s dire situation. The UN Panel offered more details on the strength of the Houthi-Iran relationship, as well as corruption within the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and violations of UNSC resolutions by the Southern Transition Council (STC).

Iran’s engagement with global powers has brought it to the forefront of international diplomacy in recent weeks: a much-trumpeted 25-year co-operation deal with China was signed on 27 March and the start of indirect talks with the United States over a revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal began in Vienna on 7 April.

A series of talks between Iranian and GCC officials have been held during December and early January in Gulf capitals, as well as on the sidelines of events in Jordan and Brazil, in moves that suggest Tehran is recalibrating its relations with neighbouring monarchies during a period of intense domestic tensions.

The overwhelming might of Iran’s internal security apparatus has ruthlessly suppressed the demonstrations which broke out in September 2022, following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The regime has dug in at home and abroad to protect the system of clerical rule, with hardliners as dominant as ever. But the protests have continued despite this onslaught and the regime’s critics have found new ways to express their discontent, from widespread strikes (including in the Tehran bazaar, a bastion of the 1979 revolution), to cyberattacks on state banks and other institutions.

A year on from the Al-Ula agreement that ended the boycott of Qatar by three of its Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) neighbours – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – Qatar is enjoying a fresh period of political calm. Indeed, in many ways it now looks to be in a better place than most of its erstwhile foes in the GCC.