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Saudi King Salman appointed Ahmed Al-Issa as director-general of the General Directorate of Investigation (Mabahith), part of the Presidency of State Security (PSS), in a series of security-related appointments.

British prosecutors have accused two former defence industry executives of orchestrating the payment of millions of pounds of bribes in Saudi Arabia, some of which went to Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah.

The US Navy has set up a new multinational task force to patrol the seas around Yemen and nearby areas. The task force will have a presence in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden.

The mid-2021 revelations about widespread use of the Pegasus spyware platform, developed by well-connected Israeli company NSO Group, have been followed by claims that Bahrain continues to hack the electronic devices of key opposition and other figures.

A consignment of 52 Iranian-made Dehlavieh anti-tank missiles has been intercepted at the Al-Mazyunah border crossing between Oman and Yemen. The missiles were hidden in a consignment of four electrical generators, which had been rigged to appear fully operational should they have been test-run at the border.

A BBC report citing Israeli intelligence’s allegedly widespread recruitment of high-ranking Iranian officers points to one possible cause of a series of security failures in recent years. As well as alleged Israeli penetration, enemy action and internal disloyalty have contributed to security problems that have dogged Iran – in turn having a disruptive impact on security, scientific and other institutions, a GSN analyst concludes.

A multi-billion dollar US scheme which has provided training to the Saudi Arabian National Guard (Sang) since the 1970s is being scaled back. The reasons for the change are unclear.

Saudi Arabian National Guard (Sang) minister Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar inaugurated the $560m National Guard Air Base at Dirab, south of Riyadh, on 17 January.

A series of missile and drone attacks on the UAE killed two people but unnerved many more local residents in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as international allies. The strikes carried a clear political message, coming as the South Korean and Israeli presidents were visiting Mohammed Bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has been quick to react by bombing Houthi missile launch sites in Yemen, but it is clear that Abu Dhabi’s efforts to distance itself from the conflict over the past three years have not succeeded.

Foreign security officials poured into Doha in late January to attend two events hosted by Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, celebrating graduation ceremonies at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) Police College and Al-Zaeem Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Attiyah Air College.

Abdullah Al-Owais has been given a senior role in the powerful Presidency of State Security. GSN reports on the move and spotlights key officials in the PSS hierarchy

Iranian officials including foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Islamic Republic of Iran Border Guards commander Brigadier General Ahmad Ali Goudarzi have been holding talks with senior figures from neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan against a backdrop of security incidents in Iran’s eastern border provinces

Leaks from Israeli defence sources cited in London weekly The Jewish Chronicle on 2 December described how Israeli intelligence services set off an explosion in Iran’s underground centrifuge facility at Natanz in April, damaging most of the centrifuges there. Iran also operates similar facilities at Fordow and elsewhere, so the damage would have slowed rather than stopped operations.

Numerous Peshmerga fighters were killed and injured in a series of confrontations with Islamic State (IS or Daesh) forces in northern Iraq in late November and early December. At least seven Peshmerga were killed and another seven injured in IS attacks north in Garmyan region, south of Sulemaniyah, in late November.

GSN Risk Grade: D↓4 Recent developments Election surprises: The general election on 10 October delivered some surprising results, including a strong showing from Muqtada Al-Sadr’s bloc, which emerged as the overall winner with 73 seats (up from 54 in the 2018 election), and a weak performance by the pro-Iran Fateh Alliance, which slumped from 48 seats last time to 15 this time.