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Established in 1971, the federation of seven emirates – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al-Quwain – is economically liberal and progressive, but remains politically conservative.
The new Labour government in London is considering drawing up a new definition of state-sponsored terrorism
Abu Dhabi Deputy Ruler Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan held talks with US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and former president Barack Obama in Washington on 5 June, before travelling to Seattle to meet senior Microsoft figures.
Former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi is one of several senior figures to warn that Tehran would have to change its self-declared ban on nuclear weapons if Iran felt its nuclear facilities were being threatened by Israel.
Critics say the trial of 84 people on terrorism charges amounts to the defendants being retried on the same charges they were previously convicted of a decade earlier
The US and UK have announced sanctions on four senior Houthi figures linked to the campaign against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. GSN’s latest map of the Yemen/Red Sea conflict zone shows a conflict zone where more than 30 ships have been targeted by Houthi missiles and drones since mid-November, forcing hundreds more vessels to divert around the southern tip of Africa – adding costs and delays to global trade.
A United States-led taskforce has been launched to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea, after Houthi rebels launched more than 100 drone and ballistic missile attacks over the past month. However, most Gulf countries have declined to join, with just Bahrain signing up to date.
An explosion at the Jabal Attan military site in southern Sanaa on 30 November remains unexplained, with pictures of smoke and fire at the base being shared on social media.
The organisational structure of Hamas is clouded in secrecy, but the current war – and negotiations to bring it to an end – mean it is now critical for Israel and other parties to understand how the group operates and makes its decisions.
The usual dizzying number of civil and military contracts were unveiled at the mid-November Dubai Airshow where, included among the 54 deals signed by the UAE government's Tawazun Council, was an air defence order with the unknown Black Diamond company, which GSN's research suggests is an Israeli venture created after Abu Dhabi's Abraham Accord was concluded.
Houthi forces in Yemen have continued to launch missiles and drones towards Israel. A drone from Yemen was shot down over the Red Sea in mid-November by the United States Navy destroyer USS Thomas Hudner.
Omani officials told GSN that the failure to achieve a settlement to the Israel/Palestinian conflict was nurturing radicalisation and undermining the prospects for resolving other political problems across the Middle East.
The potential for Iran’s 'Axis of Resistance' militia network to destabilise the wider region has been manifest in an alarming acceleration of attacks on bases hosting United States troops in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-backed militias.
The 'Axis of Resistance' bloc of state and non-state actors, Shia and Sunni militias, has been long in the making, as Iran's revolutionary elite has sought to project its influence via a disparate group of organisations ranged across the Middle East. Its components are of differing sizes and capabilities, and their links to Iran also vary.
China's People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has used a routine rotation of its ships based in Djibouti to double its presence in the region, just as the United States Navy is preparing to deploy its first aircraft carrier strike group (CSG) to the region for two years.
