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The King is overseeing a programme of cautious change, but is reluctant to ease the family hold on real power or alienate powerful religious interests. It takes fine political judgment to bolster the position of his Shammar branch of the family without provoking a rift with the Sudeiris and other powerful factions

Like Yemen, the militant threat in Bahrain is intimately linked to Saudi Arabia. This was underlined by recent attempts to secure the extradition of three Bahrainis being held in Saudi Arabia on terrorism charges. Bahrain’s Al-Adala group (National Justice Movement) and National Detainees Committee are demanding the release of the men. The first is Guantanamo detainee Abdullah Majid Al-Naimi, who was detained by Saudi police at the King Fahd causeway on 10 October; he is one of six Bahrainis detained at Guantanamo, a surprisingly high number given Bahrain’s tiny population.

Washington’s decision, announced on 9 July, to release five Iranian officials detained by US forces in Iraq since January 2007 was unusually timed. The men were described by Tehran as ‘diplomats’ but were said to have included the operations chief and other members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds force, which was accused of arming local Shia militias and inciting attacks against US forces

Senior Saudi princes were seen lining up to praise King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz during recent celebrations of the fourth anniversary of the pledge of allegiance (bayaa) to the new monarch. Several of the most senior princes wrote special speeches, with observers pointing to a strict protocol and hierarchy in how they were reported.

Keeping up with tradition, Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel has fallen out with the Palestinian Authority (PA), although it has resumed broadcasts in the West Bank after a PA ban was lifted.

President Bashar Al-Assad has quashed rivals within the Baathist regime and is gaining confidence on the international stage. Could he be leading Syria to a new dawn?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad managed to add further complexity to the Iranian crisis with the appointment of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as first vice president. Known to favour cultivating diplomatic relations with Israel, the move created a political storm among leading hardliners. Rahbar Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly instructed Ahmadinejad to sack Mashaie, suggesting a potential split between the Supreme Leader and his protégé.

King Abdullah’s first four years on the throne have been marked by substantial change in education, media and social policy. New structures have made it harder for conservatives to block curriculum reforms, and the first steps towards improving the position of women have been taken with Saudi Arabia’s participation in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) review process (GSN 823/5, 822/8).

Respected individuals identified with the outside world but not politically active are among those rounded up in the Iranian regime's post-election crackdown.

As Riyadh’s new envoy Abdullah Al-Eifa prepares to take up his post in Damascus, President Bashar Al-Assad is enjoying the diplomatic payback for a sustained period of good behaviour over the past two years. The timing of the return of both the US and Saudi ambassadors, after four- and one-year hiatuses respectively, is no coincidence – foreign partners are once more seriously courting Syria. Riyadh and Damascus have decided to close a troubled chapter in Syria’s relations with the wider Arab world after Assad’s regime demonstrated good faith in its conduct during the Lebanese parliamentary elections of 7 June, which saw its proxies lose to the Saudi/US-backed 14 March coalition led by Saad Hariri.

The withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq over the next 12 months presents Kurdistan with its greatest political risk since the end of the four-year KDP-PUK civil war in 1998. The prospect of the US military no longer guaranteeing the Kurdish/Iraqi peace heads a long list of negative factors that are competing to undermine the KRG region’s stability and end its enviable recent track record in terms of lack of violence.

Securocrat's nervousness at a deteriorating regional security situation was highlighted by reports that Saudi Arabia may place an order for extra Typhoon warplanes from BAE Systems. Saudi Arabia is anyway looking to develop

Iran’s post-election crackdown has deepened GCC concerns about regional security. But that does not mean the Saudis would tacitly grant Israel airspace to mount a strike against the Natanz nuclear plant.

Charismatic opposition leader Hassan Mushaima is weighing up the options for future campaigning as he continues to debate whether to join the cleric Sheikh Abdeljalil Al-Mukhdad and 1990s protest leader Abdelwahab Hussain at the head of a new Shia Islamist movement.

Rapidly spreading protests are seen as a challenge not just to the election result and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but also to Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and may eventually challenge the basis of the Islamic Republic (although this latter challenge still seems a long way off).