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Dana Gas has suspended a project to expand output at the Khor Mor gas field, following a series of rocket attacks in Iraq.

The first UAE-Australia Defence Industries Forum was held at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi. Ten Australian companies attended the  event.

The head of intelligence of Iran’s IRGC Hossein Taeb has been replaced after 13 years in post, with counter-intelligence chief Brigadier General Mohammad Kazzemi taking over. The change comes after a series of mysterious deaths of IRGC personnel and a recent drone attack on a military site near Tehran.

A 60-day extension to the truce between the Houthis and Yemeni government-aligned forces offers some hope that a resolution of the region’s most destructive conflict may be getting closer, but kidnappings and attacks by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) point to another threat to stability in the south, which could yet drag the United States and others back into the crisis zone.

United Nations envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council on 14 June there had been no confirmed airstrikes inside Yemen, or cross-border attacks from Yemen, since the first country-wide ceasefire in six years, announced on 2 April. A 60-day extension to the truce was announced by Grundberg on 2 June.  

UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan made a low-profile official visit to London, which ended on 13 June. It included meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UK national security adviser Stephen Lovegrove and business executives.

A five-day exercise led by Saudi Arabian Western Fleet commander Rear Admiral Yahya Bin Mohammed Al-Asiri and involving Egyptian, Djiboutian, Jordanian, Sudanese and Yemeni forces concluded in June.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani has avoided a potential private prosecution in the UK courts over allegations that the Qatari state had funded violent groups in Syria.

The United States is reportedly drawing up plans for a defence co-operation agreement between Israel and the six Gulf Co-operation Council states, as well as Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, to counter the perceived threat from Iran.

Turkey’s Ares Shipyard said it had won a contract to provide its Ares 40 Fast Interceptor Craft to the Qatar Coast Guard. Meanwhile, the Al-Shamal training ship arrived in Doha on 9 June, built by another Turkish firm, Anadolu Shipyard.

Amid growing concerns that Iran is getting ever closer to a nuclear weapons capability, there are hints that Saudi Arabia and the UAE might be making fresh preparations for their own access to atomic weapons, with Pakistan seen as the key enabler. There are many reasons for them not to move ahead on this track, but that does not necessarily mean plans won’t progress, given distrust of US security guarantees, the perpetual Iranian standoff and the monarchies’ own ambitions to project regional power.

Saudi King Salman appointed Ahmed Al-Issa as director-general of the General Directorate of Investigation (Mabahith), part of the Presidency of State Security (PSS), in a series of security-related appointments.

Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nejada) commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani has said Iranian shipping faces increased piracy risks in the Red Sea. Nejada has maintained a continuous at-sea presence in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since 2008, usually consisting of a frigate and one of its two Bandar Abbas class light replenishment oilers, sometimes supplemented by a third ship. 

The Iranian Holy Defense News Agency gave prominence to a ceremony on 22 May that celebrated the return to frontline service of a single grounded Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Iriaf) F-14 Tomcat. The F-14 entered service in 1974 and was retired by the US in 2006, but Iran has been forced to retain it and other obsolescent US models, including F-4 Phantoms, due to international sanctions.

Israel is adopting a more proactive, aggressive approach to countering the Iranian nuclear threat and regional ambitions with covert action against Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) figures in Tehran and the four-week Exercise Chariots of Fire, which is expected to culminate with a simulated air strike and commando attacks on Iran.