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In a partial success for German and French diplomacy, this €2bn electronic security contract award is primarily a technological security decision for a project long coveted by Paris.

France’s opening of its new 400-600 personnel base in Abu Dhabi marks a considerable step forward to French commitment to the UAE and wider GCC. The opening of the base on 28 May was marked by high-level French diplomatic engagement, including UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a range of other senior diplomats and military officials.

President Bashar Al-Assad issued a decree on 3 June naming General Hassan Ali Turkmani assistant vice president. The US Navy is to take over the former commercial port at Mina Salman.

Once debate was unleashed in Iran’s election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s maverick foreign policy came to play an important role in shaping opinion, among ordinary voters who see beyond populist sentiments to count the cost of Iran’s isolation as well as among elite players who have increasingly come to view the incumbent as a liability.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said there had been positive progress on negotiations about the possible purchase of Rafale fighter planes, following talks between the visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Engagement without marriage: Beltway pessimistic as Obama's team prepares to tackle Iran

France is opening its much-anticipated first permanent military base in the Gulf later this month, in Abu Dhabi, signalling its long-term strategic commitment to the region as well as further reinforcing an already close bilateral relationship.

Widening their scope of operations, Somali pirates are posing an ever greater challenge to regional governments. While energy producers are rethinking their export strategies, governments are concerned that the Horn of Africa’s instability will encroach on the Gulf region’s southern flank. Yemen is especially vulnerable as the collapse of export revenues piles further pressure on President Saleh. GSN analyses developments in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia and Yemen, and talks exclusively to the Southern Movement’s new figurehead Ali Salem Al-Baydh.

The Maliki government faces a daunting task in the last year of its present mandate: not only must it maintain security improvements while its own forces replace departing Coalition troops, it must also create an economic renaissance in the teeth of a harsh fiscal squeeze.

As it focuses on what many in Washington view as Iran’s uncomfortable rise up the international pecking order, US analysts are reappraising old ideas about detaching Syria from the so-called Shia Crescent linking Iran and Hizbollah in Lebanon. This so-called ‘Wedge Theory’ argued that a strategic deal with Syria, most likely involving peace with Israel and international rehabilitation, could be used to induce Damascus to end its strategic alliance with Iran and cut off one avenue of support for Hizbollah and Hamas.

Eleven alleged Al-Qaeda fighters arrested just north of the Yemeni border in early April were experienced jihadists who carried with them the components for a staggering 35 suicide vests. This raises the alarming prospect that jihadist activity may be poised to burst out again, with this group emerging as the tip of the iceberg as Saudi security forces set to work investigating their ties in the search for a suspected network of safe houses and arms caches.

The United Arab Emirates Naval Forces’ Baynunah corvette is moving towards readiness for launch in summer 2009. The first vessel, shown by French shipbuilder Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) at IDEX 2009, was declared structurally complete and installed with propulsion machinery in March. Sensors and systems are now being installed and will be tested in sea trials this autumn.

The 15 March suicide bombing of Korean tourists in Yemen and the 18 March follow-up attack on a foreign convoy in Sana’a have underlined the danger of trying to draw a line under Yemen’s terrorist threat.

The Shibam bomber, Abdulrahman Mehdi al-Ajiri, has been quickly profiled, giving an interesting insight into the new generation of Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Ajari was born in the Al-Salam (Peace) district of Sanaa in 1990. He spent most of his life in the Al-Jamhori Hospital area in Taiz, a city associated with strong recruitment of Islamist militants for the Afghan jihad in the 1980s and 1990s. Al-Ajiri is not the only

Veteran diplomat, linguist and former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, has withdrawn from consideration for the position of National Intelligence Council chairman (GSN 848/4). Only two weeks ago, director of National Intelligence