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The UAE appears to be trialling the Israeli Barak-8 air defence system, with satellite imagery from an air defence site at Al-Muqatra south of Abu Dhabi suggesting a Hawk air defence battery previously at the site has been replaced by two launchers and a radar from the Israeli system, as first noted on Twitter by Ben Reuter.

Deals worth $1.8bn were agreed at Bahrain International Air Show, according to officials, although few details were publicly announced. The sixth running of the show was held from 9-11 November at Sakhir Air Base, in the centre of the island. Some 186 companies participated from 33 countries, with visits from 225 military and civil delegations.

Forces aligned with Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) have claimed a major victory in Abyan, following an operation launched on 23 August to clear the governorate of "terrorist elements".

Iran has announced a series of advances for its home-grown missile arsenal, as western powers raise concern Tehran may be willing to provide missiles for Russia to use in the Ukraine war.

Since the six-month ceasefire in Yemen ended in early October, Houthi forces have launched a series of drone attacks on energy infrastructure targets. To date, they have caused minimal damage, but the rebel group showed during the summer that it has a large stock of weapons at its disposal and more strikes seem likely.

After Iranian drones were reported to have attacked apartment buildings and other civilian targets in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Tehran and Moscow denied the Islamic Republic had supplied any such equipment. However, there is clear evidence that points in the other direction.

That the legendary late head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp’s Quds Force, Qassim Soleimani, has not been forgotten following his January 2020 assassination by the United States was underlined by a 2 November tweet on Iranian Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Twitter account.

The United States has approved a deal to sell a $3bn air defence system to Kuwait.

A keel-laying ceremony was held in Marinette, Wisconsin, for the second ship in the Tuwaiq project, which will provide the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) with four multi-tasking combat ships able to deal with air, surface and subsurface threats.

Protestors have refused to stand down in the face of sometimes overwhelming state force in the seven weeks since Mahsa Amini died in custody. The movement’s support base has spread across the country and into parts of society not usually associated with political demonstrations, putting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei under unprecedented pressure. His regime is not yet facing the end, but the challenge to the clerical/military leadership will not fade easily or quickly.

Iran has voiced concerns that recent fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which flared up again in September, will impact its direct trucking routes through Armenia via the Lachin corridor to Georgia and Russia. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "The Islamic Republic will not tolerate policies or plans that lead to the closing of the Iran-Armenia border."

Yemen’s Sunni Islamist party Al-Islah is facing mounting challenges, as southerners demand full implementation of the 2019 Riyadh Agreement – under which the Southern Transitional Council (STC) was recognised as the legitimate representative of the southern people – and Houthis escalate their campaign across Marib and Taiz.

Iranian drones are now being seen regularly over the Ukrainian battlefield, following previous reports of a supply deal between Tehran and Moscow.

A sustained campaign of artillery, rocket and drone strikes by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) on targets in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) in late September and early October has prompted a wave of condemnation from Baghdad, regional and international capitals. However, as yet, there are no signs Tehran is preparing to back down, or that the Iraqi government or other countries will take any significant retaliatory action.

The Kuwait Air Force received two more Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3 jets in late September, part of a $9.6bn order for 28 of the multi-role fighter aircraft signed in late 2015.