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UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) appointed Staff Lieutenant General Engineer Issa Saif Mohammed Al-Mazrouei as chief of staff of the UAE Armed Forces, via a decree issued early January. It was the first time the role has changed hands in 18 years.

For all United Nations special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg’s efforts at shuttle diplomacy, the continued failure to relaunch the UN-backed ceasefire – which ended in October – has raised the prospect of renewed threats to shipping in the waters around Yemen. This has particular resonance for the UAE, which has often resorted to using commercial vessels as part of its security response.

The Iranian authorities’ harsh crackdown on the protesters appears to be having an impact, with far fewer public demonstrations now being reported. Thousands have been arrested and at least four protestors have been hanged following what critics have called sham trials.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force provides a command and control template that facilitates the IRGC’s work with allies across the region, led by Lebanese Hizbollah and apparent in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The failure of Yemen’s warring parties to renew their truce in October is regarded by many observers as a sign of both the increasing strength of the Houthi rebel group and a failure of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) to resolve its own internal differences.

Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman was in London on 13 December for talks with his counterpart Ben Wallace and to sign a new bilateral defence agreement.

Kuwait’s National Assembly (parliament) agreed on 14 December to look into alleged graft in two controversial defence contracts: a $9bn deal with Leonardo in 2016 to supply 28 Eurofighter Typhoons and a deal to buy 30 Caracal helicopters from Airbus.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Military Industries (Gami) signed a memorandum of understanding with Spanish shipbuilder Navantia in December, paving the way for a deal to buy more warships for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF).

The White House briefed journalists in early December that Moscow may be preparing to supply fifth generation Sukhoi Su-35 fighter aircraft to Iran in 2023, in exchange for deliveries of Shahed-136 drones. Iranian pilots are apparently already in Russia training to fly the aircraft.

The Taliban regime's acting defence minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob was in the UAE for talks with senior UAE and United States figures in early December, in a rare overseas trip by a leading Taliban official.

The United States has approved a request from Doha to buy a $1bn anti-drone system. The approval, announced on 29 November by the US State Department, covers ten anti-drone systems from defence companies Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, including 200 Coyote Block 2 interceptors, launch systems, radars, and other related equipment.

The United Kingdom has said it estimates the number of Iranian-supplied Shahed-136 drones used by Russia in its war in Ukraine to be "in the low hundreds".

The United Kingdom military has begun a new regime in which advanced brigade combat team training will be transferred from Canada to Oman. Under the new training format, two four-month rotations will be carried out in the sultanate every year, meaning that the British Army will have an acclimatised and desert-trained presence in the Gulf for most of the year.

Iran appears to have resumed its campaign of striking tankers in the Gulf of Oman, after the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command (Navcent) reported that the Pacific Zircon oil products tanker had been struck by an Iranian-made explosive drone off Fujairah, en route to Argentina.

GSN Risk Grade: F6 US explosives seizure: The United States Navy said it had intercepted a fishing vessel in international waters in the Gulf of Oman on 8 November and found a large quantity of explosive material which it said was being smuggled from Iran to Yemen.