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Since the granting of universal suffrage in 2003, all adults are eligible to vote and women have the right to seek public office. But civil liberties remain constrained. Media freedoms are heavily restricted, there is limited news flow from the country and the government reserves the right to censor.

After a year of turbulence and widespread civil unrest following disputed presidential elections, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government has consolidated its position with the support of the president’s powerful backer, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC or Pasdaran).

Opposition is not well tolerated, and the prime minister has again been grilled by MPs, this time over the heavy-handed police crackdown on a rally in December that left five people injured. The protest was against a ‘government plot’ to amend the constitution, and lift the parliamentary immunity of maverick Islamist Faisal Al-Muslim

A move towards elections was promised mid-decade, but a change in the ruling families’ social compact with their populations to promote ‘democracy’ has not been forthcoming. Sheikh Khalifa’s 2010 National Day address on 2 December was notable for its lack of any pledge to introduce more accountable elections to the ‘consultative’ FNC.

Although Syria is a bastion of Levantine culture, its portrayal in the media is often dominated by its politics. The West mistrusts its relationship with Iran and organisations such as Lebanon’s Hizbollah. Years of meddling in Lebanese affairs have strained relations, although efforts at reconciliation have been made, with Syria naming its first ambassador to Lebanon in 2009.

Private investment management company Securities Group (SG), which initially opposed a deal to sell 46% of Kuwait telecommunications group Zain to the UAE’s Etisalat, now says it wants to be part of talks.

Leave aside for a moment the football politics, so often an opaque affair, and the disappointment of much larger and more established soccer-playing nations, whose hopes of hosting a World Cup were dashed by the Zurich-based Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the sport’s governing body. What does the success of Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup say about the nature of polities and geopolitics as the world remakes itself after a decade defined by the West’s unresolved interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and staggers to an end with European economies and the United States struggling to recover from the credit crunch?

Libya has acquired Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia)’s stake in Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), bringing its total holding in Bahrain’s second largest bank to almost 60%.

Recent comments by Dubai officials have sparked speculation that the emirate will privatise key assets to pay off its $110bn of debt.

The effects of the global downturn on Dubai, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have forced traders, financiers and insurers to assess GCC credit and political risk more closely. And some firms are expanding their GCC teams to do so

On 11 November, the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) issued a circular to all local banks, investment companies and money exchanges, ordering them to freeze assets and cease dealing with Iranian financial institutions that contribute to the country’s nuclear activities, according to Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper and other local media.

An underwriter told GSN that, adding salt to the wounds, “there has been no real premium hike for Saudi risks whereas premiums are high for Bahrain, disproportionate to its credit rating, as it starts to come back in the market”. The underwriter added

The joint venture between Qatar Telecom (QTel) and Tunisia’s Princesse El-Materi Holding, which is trying to buy Orascom Telecom Holding’s 50% stake in Telecom Tunisie (Tunisiana), reflects Qatar’s skill at making deals with North African ruling elites.

Insurers’ perceptions of Saudi credit risk is improving. According to Euler Hermes’ Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) risk management director Mahan Bolourchi, “there has been a positive change in our perception of the risks.

United Arab Emirates investors are again trying to get projects off the ground in Algeria, with Federal National Council president Abdelaziz Abdullah Al-Ghurair meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers earlier this month to push their case.