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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.

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.

The UAE president’s diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash has said Abu Dhabi is now pursuing a “zero problems” policy with neighbours. The veteran diplomat told the 5 October Arab Media Forum in Dubai that Abu Dhabi wanted to rebuild relationships with Iran, Turkey and other problem countries of recent years.

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.

United States Central Command (Centcom) is planning to set up a new anti-drone testing facility in the Gulf. The location has yet to be finalised, but a site in Saudi Arabia is seen as most likely, given the availability of large open spaces away from population centres, which will make it easier to test signal-jamming, directed energy weapons and other electronic warfare methods.

Yemen’s internationally-recognised Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) government marked its first 150 days in office in early September, but fractures within the coalition have started to become more visible.

The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) has sanctioned four companies – Safiran Airport Services, Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines (Dama) and Baharestan Kish Company – for their alleged involvement in manufacturing and supplying drones for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Israeli chief of staff General Aviv Kohavi has hinted heavily that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) carried out an air strike on 7 August against Houthi ballistic missiles at Al-Hafa, south-east of Sanaa. A strike inside Yemen by Israeli forces, rather than by proxies, would be highly unusual.

GSN Risk grade: F6. UN truce: United Nations special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg is pushing the main warring parties to extend their truce beyond the current end-date of 2 August.

As President Putin visited Tehran, US officials claimed Iranian military officials were actively promoting the capabilities of their domestic drones – some of them reverse-engineered from captured western models – which could find their way to Ukraine.

An attack on Iraq's Barakh resort in the mountains of northern Dohuk province  has taken relations between Baghdad and Ankara to a new low. Turkey denied carrying out the attack, blaming the PKK instead.

The visit of Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) commander Lieutenant General Prince Turki Bin Bandar Bin Abdelaziz to Muscat follows that of several other senior Saudi military officials to Oman in recent months.

In a special report from Yemen's Taiz, GSN spoke to local residents and activists about the impact of the continued blockade of roads into and out of a city that is besieged despite a United Nations-backed truce which included provisions for the seven-year blockade to be lifted.