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Investigations into UAE-based hospital operator NMC Healthcare continues to grow in number and scale. According to a report by The Times on 15 May, among those now taking an interest are the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States.

Petroleum minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will retire once a new president is inaugurated, the Ministry of Petroleum’s Shana news service reported on 17 May. “I am retired… but I will remain in politics”, 68 year-old Zanganeh was quoted as saying. In a career featuring decades of government service, Zanganeh has been petroleum minister since 15 August 2013, when he was appointed by President Hassan Rouhani.

Human rights groups have expressed concern about the fate of Kenyan labour rights activist Malcolm Bidali, who was arrested on 4 May and taken in for questioning by the Qatari authorities. A week before his arrest Bidali had given a presentation to civil society organisations and trade unions about his experience of working in Qatar, since arriving in 2016 to work as a security guard.

The signs of shifting political sands in Bahrain come with a Covid-19-related political crisis, following an outbreak of coronavirus at Jaw (sometimes Jau) prison and a subsequent wave of public protests by concerned family members. One activist told GSN it was “a new awakening” and described it as the most widespread period of protests for several years.

Doha’s Washington embassy has hired seven US-based lobbying and consulting firms so far this year, according to United States Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) filings. The deals reflect the Democratic Party takeover of the White House and a wider upturn in Qatari lobbying, after Doha had under-spent some of its neighbours.

The operation mounted by King Abdullah II of Jordan to pre-empt an alleged plot centred on his half-brother Prince Hamzah has prompted speculation about the Saudi crown prince’s potential involvement, but while MBS has a record of muscular meddling, evidence of a scheme to undermine the Jordanian court is elusive.

Denmark's public prosecution service announced on 15 April that it had charged three members of an Iranian opposition group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (Asmla), with financing and supporting terrorist activity in Iran in cooperation with an unnamed Saudi intelligence service.

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) managing director Raoul Restucci has retired after a decade in post that has seen crude output steadily increase, notwithstanding the huge technical challenges associated with some Omani oilfields and predictions that declining output was inevitable.  

United States Central Command (Centcom) commander General Kenneth McKenzie arrived in Oman for a three-day visit on 21 February. McKenzie’s schedule indicated that his visit was of a military, non-policy nature. It included meetings with the Sultan’s Armed Forces’ recently-appointed chief-of-staff Vice Admiral Abdullah Khamis Al-Raisi.

Sheikh Yamani became a household name when as Saudi energy minister he oversaw a global rise in oil prices and key elements of the kingdom’s transformation as an international power and modern economy. A leading figure under Kings Faisal and Khaled, Yamani was eventually removed by Fahd, with whom he had issues when the king was crown prince, as Saudi Arabia Newsletter reported at the time.

 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)’s new 11-member board of directors was appointed on 28 February. Previously, the 16-member Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) functioned as the Adnoc board, but it was merged into the new and powerful 11-member Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) in late December. At that point it was said the SPC members would sit on the Adnoc board until a new one could be formed. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) now chairs Adnoc.

Mohamed Mahmoud Al-Khaja was sworn in as the first UAE ambassador to Israel, in a ceremony at Al-Watan Palace in Abu Dhabi on 14 February in front of federal vice president and prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and presidential affairs minister Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Dr Anwar Gargash has stepped down from his role as the long-serving minister of state for foreign affairs in a reshuffle; he has taken on a new post of diplomatic advisor to President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan – an apparently symbolic post as the president is infirm and inactive, beyond messages broadcast in his name. Another minister of state, Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh, also left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); he will now serve as cultural advisor to the president.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan’s bid to take a 50% stake in Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem has been placed in doubt over the sources of the little known sheikh’s wealth. An audit by Tel Aviv-based Megiddo Financial Intelligence found that “more than 90%” of Sheikh Hamad’s assets were held in Venezuelan government bonds, Bloomberg reported on 10 February.

One year into power, Haitham Bin Tariq seems to have completed sweeping changes at the top of the military as the sultan and key allies, including his brother Sayyid Shihab, emerge from the long shadow of the late Sultan Qaboos’s rule by placing their appointees into revised security structures.