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Emir Sheikh Tamim watched Sheikha Mariam Bint Mishaal graduate from Al-Zaeem Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Attiyah Air College – one of four graduation ceremonies at state security and military colleges the Qatari ruler attended from 20-23 January.

Under Emir Sheikh Tamim, Doha has pulled back from the overt foreign interventions that typified his father’s rule, preferring to make itself more useful as an international mediator – with another apparent triumph in negotiating the new Gaza ceasefire – while keeping regional rivals onside and building up its global-scale gas industry to leave it as one of the world’s wealthiest jurisdictions for decades to come.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have most active in trying to develop ties with the new Syrian leadership, with a flurry of meetings, aid and technical assistance, accompanied by wariness of the potential for further instability in the brave new world after Bashar Al-Assad.

The federal government has set up a new disaster response agency, to replace the Civil Defence Department.

The Abu Dhabi authorities have added the 11 individuals and eight organisations to its Local Terrorist List, accusing them of involvement with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Mohammed Bin Zayed has appointed Major General Ahmed Saif Al-Muhairi as commander-in-chief of Abu Dhabi Police, on the same day that Crown Prince Khalid Bin Mohammed named another Al-Nahyan family member as the force’s new director-general.

London has been bolstering its defence ties with a number of Gulf countries in early December, during high-level talks with leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Having achieved outstanding results, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Bin Mohammed Al-Maktoum has graduated from the British military by picking up Sandhurst’s two international ‘sword’ awards.

President Mohammed Bin Zayed and other senior political and military figures were on hand to witness the first 88 students graduate with a BSc in defence and security at the university’s campus in Abu Dhabi.

Two of the three new vessels will be completed in the kingdom and the state-owned General Authority for Military Industries (Gami) will also gain the intellectual property rights to the design, enabling Saudi Arabia to build more of the vessels in the future, including possible export orders.

The dramatic end to Bashir Al-Assad’s rule has created another crisis for Iran’s regional strategy and is an unnerving moment for Gulf monarchies which, in the name of ‘stability’, had been rebuilding ties with a Damascus regime that seemed to have survived a decade-plus of civil war. Diplomatic strategies will now have to be hastily redrawn, with an initial focus on ensuring Syria does not slide further into turmoil.

Iran’s relationship with United Nation’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with western powers has soured markedly in recent weeks, in the wake of a visit to Tehran by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on 14 November. Grossi had been pushing for greater access to Iran by IAEA inspectors and to discuss uranium traces found at a number of sites around the country, but appeared to make little or no progress.

The Iraqi Air Force’s F-16 programme will continue for another six months, having been at risk after allegations that Iran-backed militias had become involved.

Riyadh has signed partnership deals with the military reserves of Indiana and Oklahoma, mirroring similar deals struck by Oman and Qatar in the past. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb also called into Riyadh in mid-November, as part of a two-country trip to the region which also took in Kuwait.

The days of Ankara focusing its attention in the GCC solely on Qatar are now firmly in the past, as recent agreements point to Türkiye steadily growing its military and commercial links with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, as well as with Doha.