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The Bahraini premier has one wife, Sheikha Hessa Bint Ali Al-Khalifa. They had three sons and one daughter. Eldest son Mohammed died aged 22 in 1974. His next son Sheikh Ali was a long-running transport minister and remains deputy prime minister. Ali has substantial business interests, including a stake in The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Bahrain. Married to Sheikha Zain Bint Khalid Al-Khalifa, he has three sons (Ali, Isa and Khalid) and a daughter (Minwa). The next son is the low-profile Sheikh Salman, a director of United International Agencies Group (Unitag), one of his father’s preferred business people.

UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) announced a government reshuffle on 12 March, the first significant reallocation of portfolios since 2009 . The move ushered in four new faces and relocated three, but heralded no dramatic changes: only one person left the government – energy minister Mohammed Bin Dhaen Al-Hamli – and the key posts of interior, foreign affairs, presidential affairs, finance and defence all remained in the hands of the Al-Maktoum or Al-Nahyan.

An employee at JFK airport in New York has been charged with taking bribes from Qatar and other unnamed governments in return for allowing them to park government jets overnight at the airport. Marlene Mizzi, an assistant airport duty supervisor at JFK until being suspended earlier this year, faces up to four years in jail if convicted.

Somali pirates are said to have earned at least $30m last year, although some estimates are much higher. This compares with the unrecognised Republic of Puntland's formal budget of around $20m/yr, with revenues gleaned from customs, airport and land revenues. Many pirates are said to be based in Puntland, which GSN's Nadine Marroushi visited last year, on terms which demanded a heavy security complement. Somalia's ruling Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulahi Omar has said pirates can earn as much as $150m/yr from ransoms.

Saudi Arabia’s ally Jordan looks increasingly likely to take the seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that Riyadh dramatically rejected. On 18 November, the Jordanian foreign ministry said it had presented an “official request” to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and, on 21 November, the UN said the General Assembly would vote on 6 December on whether to accept it. No other country has said it will stand. Jordan has twice been a non-permanent member of the UNSC, in 1965-6 and 1982-3. Saudi Arabia, which has called for comprehensive reform of the council, has never been elected.

French President François Hollande was back in Saudi Arabia on 29 December, for an official visit which underlined the current warmth between Riyadh and Paris. It was Hollande’s second visit to the kingdom since taking office; the first, in November 2012, was seen as a sign of his intent to redress the Qatarisation seen under his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy (GSN 935/8). A year later, the relationship has indeed strengthened, in no small part because Saudi Arabia sees France as an ally on Syria, a conflict in which Paris, too, has pushed for western intervention. This time, King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz received Hollande – whom one French paper described as Riyadh’s favourite falcon – in his farm at Rawdat Khuraim, 60km north-east of the capital, a choice of venue seen as showing favour towards the French leader.

Morocco has suspended Doha-based Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel from operating in the country, accusing it of impartiality.

The National Election Committee (NEC)’s 6 June announcement of a timetable for the third Federal National Council (FNC) elections, scheduled for 3 October, provoked little excitement in most of the emirates, even though it carried with it a government commitment to increased responsiveness and transparency in local politics. It was followed in Sharjah by an initiative to broaden participation at emirate level by holding elections for half the seats in its Consultative Council, whose membership will be enlarged to 42. The federal FNC’s official mandate is to provide for public debate of legislation: it is intended to support the leadership by giving opinions, but has no more than an advisory role.

Elections for 284 municipal councils on 12 December saw women vote for the first time, and 20 elected to office. The commitment to women taking part was made by the late King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz, and it was maintained by King Salman despite objections from the Wahhabi religious establishment. A total of 978 women registered as candidates (compared to 5,938 men) in some 2,100 council seats (an additional 1,050 seats are appointed by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs).

Street violence flared in Bahrain during late September and October, leading to another major security hunt for a group of Shia protestors who were allegedly involved in a serious assault on three men. The crowd threw a Molotov cocktail at a car that contained three Bahraini Shia male civilians who escaped with light injuries. Bahraini security insiders told GSN the attackers believed the vehicle carried a Bahraini Secret Intelligence Service (BSIS) surveillance team. Whatever the truth - no completely independent witnesses are yet available - the incident should be seen against the background of growing tension in Bahrain, as the authorities maintain a firm line which leading opposition figures fear will only deepen disenchantment among young Shiite men.

Cabinet members had to submit their resignation three months before elections in order to become candidates. The future remains vague for former ministers such as Rashad Al-Alimi (deputy minister for security affairs), Sadeq Ameen Abu Rass (GPC assistant general secretary),

Qatar’s Supreme Education Council, run by heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani and his mother Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Misnad, dropped what one source described as a “bombshell” on 25 January when it issued a decree stipulating that Arabic should be the official teaching language at Qatar University (QU).

The federal government’s annual meetings, co-chaired by Vice President, prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, was held in Abu Dhabi on 26-27 September. The meeting was attended by 450 dignitaries including ministers and heads of federal bodies and local government agencies. A number of long-term national strategies were launched, among them the UAE Soft Power Strategy, the Emirates Higher Education Strategy and the UAE Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy.

GCC: The Co-operation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) was set up on 25 May 1981 in Abu Dhabi, when the leaders of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates agreed to establish a council whose aims were to “achieve unity”, formulate “similar regulations” in the economics, customs, commerce, communications, education and culture sectors, and to stimulate scientific and technological progress.

Politics: Disagreements between the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad have been a source of major tensions. The 2005 constitution gave the KRI an identity distinct from Iraq, as a federal entity recognised by Iraq and the United Nations; the 2010 Erbil agreement outlined how power would be shared. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has long protested these agreements’ lack of implementation.