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The UAE is to introduce a new federal law covering all non-Muslim foreigners, which will give women equal rights in proceedings for divorce, inheritance and custody of children. The measures will come into effect from 1 February 2023.

Kuwait executed seven people at the Central Prison on the morning of 16 November, including four locals and citizens of Ethiopia, Pakistan and Syria. The Public Prosecution said their various crimes included murder, kidnapping, possession of unlicensed firearms and adultery. It was the largest number of executions since 2017.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev appears to have hardened his posture towards Iran, telling a conference that bilateral relations were now worse than under the three previous Iranian leaders. The relationship between Baku and Tehran has become strained by several issues over recent years.

The UAE is preparing for its 51st National Day on 2 December with the usual talk of unity and joint endeavour. However, one consequence of the wide-ranging social and economic reforms introduced in recent years is that the idea of Emirati national identity may now be more contentious than it has been for decades.

While BBC Persian is causing problems for the authorities in Tehran, the UK broadcaster continues to suffer death by a thousand cuts amid austerity at home.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Jeddah on 24 September, where he was received at the airport by Mecca region governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal and finance minister Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan. He held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at Al-Salam Palace before flying out later that day to the UAE, where the most important elements of his weekend tour were finalised.

A contract for the management of air traffic control at Afghanistan’s main airports is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, with companies from the UAE, Qatar and Turkey in the running, after Abu Dhabi firms won a big ground services and security contract for Herat, Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. It is hoped improved services will encourage more airlines to return to Taliban-run Afghanistan.

In his first years in power, Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq has had to establish his legitimacy and cope with fiscal pressures and the challenge of Covid-19, but with reforms bedding in and oil prices rising, the prospects for Oman look brighter than for some time. GSN analyses the trends since Sultan Qaboos’ death and profiles some of the key players in contemporary Oman.

It has been many months since the widely-respected Saudi academic Dr Saud Al-Sarhan was last in touch with his friends in the kingdom and abroad – many of whom are senior researchers who attest to the quietly-spoken Saud’s great ability to reach out to a diverse and influential body of intellectuals. His disappearance began after he left his post as secretary-general of the Riyadh-based King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) last May (with a 1 August 2021 official departure date).

The signs are growing that a deal to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal may be within reach, with several developments in mid-March which could be seen as confidence-building steps.

Kuwaiti oil minister Mohammed Al-Fares and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdelaziz Bin Salman have signed an agreement to develop the offshore Dorra gas field in their shared Neutral Zone. However, the deal is immersed in controversy due to objections from Iran, which said the field extends into its waters.

The reluctance of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join western efforts to build an anti-Russia coalition and stabilise volatile energy markets brings into sharp focus the trend over recent years for the US to scale back its interest in the Gulf and for GCC states to seek other partners. As Putin’s war continues, all sides may need to recalibrate their perceptions and their policy positions to accommodate a global realignment of forces.

The GCC talks on the Yemen conflict which began in Riyadh on 29 March – with the notable absence of any Houthi representatives – could be used to announce a major package of economic assistance for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government from the Gulf states.

Voting for the Council of Representatives on 10 October is likely to see very low turnout amid voter apathy, with Moqtada Al-Sadr and the Kurdistan Democratic Party tipped to emerge as key figures in the post-election environment. But what really counts is the behind-closed-doors horse-trading between major political blocs.

Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has invited his Azerbaijani counterpart to Tehran and said he will visit Baku “at the appropriate time”, in an apparent attempt to reduce tensions which have flared up amid military exercises by both countries and Iranian allegations that Azerbaijan is receiving military assistance from Israel.