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In a surprise announcement, the Iranian authorities said that the length of mandatory military service had been cut by three months.  Military service will now range from between 14 and 21 months, depending on the location and mission of a conscript.

Eight years after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal was adopted, a wave of restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme have automatically fallen away. The US, Europe and others have vowed to keep up the pressure, imposing fresh restrictions on Iran, but the flows of drones and other weapons from Iran to Russia – and perhaps other consumers – seems only likely to increase.

The turmoil that has broken out in Israel and Gaza in recent days may lead to a recalibration by Yemen's Houthis of what they should put on their list of demands and how much pressure they can exert on Saudi Arabia in any further rounds of talks. It might also concentrate minds in Riyadh about the need to secure a viable settlement in Yemen, so that the land beyond its southern border is not a long-term harbour of potential danger.

An analysis of Hamas' lightning invasion points as much to Israeli weaknesses as to the Palestinian group's abilities. Hamas clearly knew its enemy well and was well set up to exploit Israeli weaknesses, both before battle was joined and as it developed.

The UAE is facing further accusations it is using a field hospital in north-east Chad as a cover for supplying arms to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Lieutenant General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (often known as Hemedti), as well as to treat the militia group’s injured fighters.

The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) announced late September that First Lieutenant Hamad Khalifa Al-Kubaisi had succumbed to the injuries he had sustained during a Houthi attack on Bahraini forces on the Saudi/Yemen border four days earlier, becoming the fourth casualty from the incident.

Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nedaja) commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani has said Tehran is planning to establish a permanent presence in Antarctica which will have both military and scientific components.

Iran has released video imagery of a new jet-powered suicide drone, similar in configuration to the Shahed-136 drone which has been heavily used by Russia in Ukraine.

A drone strike on Arbat Airport in Sulaymaniyah governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in September killed three members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's elite Counterterrorism Group and wounded three others. Iraqi military officials blamed Turkey for the attack.

Baghdad claims to have disarmed and moved Iranian Kurdish exiles from the border area with Iran, but the reality is that compliance has been more limited, meaning further Iranian military strikes on the area are a distinct possibility.

An Iranian ballistic missile test failed mid-September, with debris from the Khorramshar-4 projectile falling over the north-east city of Gorgan, close to the Caspian Sea.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said that Iran had developed an airfield in southern Lebanon, just 20km from the border with Israel. Iranian media claimed that electrical connectors used in Iranian missiles had been sabotaged by Israeli agents.

The US and Bahrain signed a Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement (C-SIPA), during a visit to Washington by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al-Khalifa. Analysts said it could provide a framework for deals with others in the region.

A plan to reform the Peshmerga militia in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is in deep trouble due to the inability of the region's two main parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to work together.

A joint exercise between the Chinese and UAE air forces appears to have gone ahead in August, although neither side has since offered any clear details of an event that could trouble western allies on several fronts, while emphasising Abu Dhabi’s determination to become a 'middle power' in a multi-polar international environment.