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Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) minister Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah is maintaining a high public profile after months of low visibility when he was only seen publicly on SANG-related business – notably visiting injured troops or talking about the sacrifices of martyrs in the Yemen conflict. Miteb’s long career in SANG is thought to have endowed him with considerable loyalty within the guard, making him the most prominent of the late King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s sons. His low profile until recently led to speculation that he had been sidelined by Al-Salman rivals.

The economy weathers a year of ‘seige’: Qatar has arguably emerged as a more robust economy – and with a more defined sense of national identity and interest – from the crisis that began with the planting of ‘fake news’ stories on the Qatar News Agency website in May 2017 and saw erstwhile Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) allies Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE boycotting the economy from 5 June.

Emir Sheikh Hamad’s fourth son Sheikh Tamim was appointed heir apparent in an August 2003 move, when he replaced his older full brother Sheikh Jassim (GSN 716/6). The changeover was widely regarded as sensible – the laid-back Jassim, who was seen as having little political ambition, had been a stopgap until Tamim had finished his education and gained more experience in high-level politics.

The blame game began within hours of Sunni extremists taking Mosul (see page 1). Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki blamed members of the army for deserting, saying the seizure of the city was a “conspiracy”. Saudi Arabia blamed Iranian-backed Maliki, with information minister Abdelaziz Bin Mohieddin Khoja saying: “This would not have arisen were it not for the sectarian and exclusionary policies practised in Iraq over the past years”. Former British prime minister Tony Blair blamed the civil war in Syria (and definitely not the 2003 invasion of Iraq of which he was a primary architect). Writing in The Wall Street Journal on 15 June, L Paul Bremer, the former US governor of Iraq, tried to pin it on US President Barack Obama, who, he said, pulled US forces out of Iraq too soon.

Salafists in Aden and Taiz are seizing the opportunity to take a major role both in combat and in the political arena, helped by reluctance among members of the Saudi-led coalition to rely too heavily on figures affiliated with Al-Islah, the Sunni Islamist party which previously supported former president Ali Abdullah Saleh (GSN 1,013/3). Saleh has many fewer friends in the region than during the decades he held sway in Sanaa, and nowhere is his stock – and consequently that of his current and erstwhile allies – lower than in Saudi Arabia.

While the Saudi-led coalition’s principle aim is to eject the Houthis from Sanaa and re-establish President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi’s government, violent religious extremism has provided a constant distraction – underlined by renewed efforts in South Yemen against forces affiliated to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State. The UAE has led this push, combining its own operations with financial, logistical and other support for local groups including the Security Belt Forces, Shabwani Elite Forces and Hadhrami Elite Forces, which between them have faced the brunt of the fighting.

On 30 April, Bahrain ordered a retrial for 21 defendants sentenced in June for their role in last year’s protests, though it did not release the accused, who included Abdulhadi-Al Khawaja, on hunger strike since 8 February. A civilian court began re-examining their cases on 8 May, according to the Associated Press, and set the date for the next hearing for 22 May

Prince Badr Bin Abdelaziz, a half-brother of King Abdullah, died in late March. He was in his early 80s. He was communications minister in the early 1960s and Saudi Arabian National Guard deputy commander from 1968 to November 2010, when he reportedly retired for health reasons.

By and large, Oman reacted quickly and efficiently to the cyclone that struck the Sultanate in early June

The UAE has published a new cyber crimes law, which deals with a range of internet crimes but also details jail terms and fines for anyone deemed to be acting against government, religious, national or social interests.

In the absence of official statements, it remains unclear how significant a government reshuffle might be. But several names have repeatedly surfaced: Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud: There has been some suggestion that heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani could be named prime minister, as well as emir, should Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani (HBJ) step down, though this would be an unusual step in Qatar. Current deputy prime minister and state minister for foreign affairs Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud has also been mentioned in connection with the premiership.

One-time mayor of Tehran and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force commander Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf (sometimes Ghalibaf) was elected speaker of the conservative-dominated Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (parliament) on 28 May, following the general election in February. Qalibaf replaces the speaker since 2008, Ali Larijani, who has been appointed Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser and Expediency Council member.

The Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen has been plagued with differences between Riyadh and its allies, from Pakistan’s early refusal to join in through to Abu Dhabi’s June 2016 proclamation (swiftly retracted) that its military involvement was over. Policy and strategic differences have contributed to chaos on the ground, and while President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi still enjoys support from Saudi Arabia, his inability to unite opposition to the Houthis and their ally ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh is prompting renewed questions over Yemen’s unity.

As the man now charged with halting Iraq’s implosion, Iraq’s prime minister designate, Haider Al-Abadi, who was nominated to succeed Nouri Al-Maliki in mid-August,evidently has a tough job on his hands; in his own words, posted to his Twitter feed on 16 August, “the road ahead is not one paved with roses”. International opinion seems thus far to have fallen in support of Abadi, not least because he has the benefit of not being his predecessor Maliki, whose concentration of power during his two terms in office has been hugely damaging.

US Democratic congressman Brad Sherman has told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that the UAE remains a “transhipment and diversion hub” and does “not effectively control exports to Iran and other countries of proliferation”.