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There was a lull in the speculation over the potential bombing of Iran by the United States or - more likely - its ally Israel, with the world transfixed by Barak Obama's victory in the US presidential election. Talk of significant offensive action against Tehran became intense during the late summer, with two theories circulating on the eventuality of a strike to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities and perhaps other targets. One theory was that the outgoing Bush administration would sanction a strike as its last neo-conservative hurrah; and, two, that Israel would be emboldened to act. In September, UK daily The Guardian, added to the debate by publishing details of documents showing how Washington had sought to rein in Israeli hawks who were ready to attack.

Spontaneous celebrations began in Najran as news broke that hard-line governor Prince Mishaal Bin Saud Bin Abdelaziz had been removed by King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz after years of discrimination against the local Ismaili community. "The King has answered our calls for change and this is just the beginning. Najran has been celebrating since last night, firing guns in air and dancing in the streets," reported local resident Mohammed Al-Askar. The official Saudi Press Agency said Mishaal had been relieved of the governorship by royal decree "at his own request," the political signal was clear.

Nouriya Al-Sabeeh looks far from safe, as Islamists gear up for another ministerial grilling, but the wider reform drive should continue as the parliamentary opposition lacks coherence on most non-social policy issues.

Yemeni-based militants constitute one external threat to expatriates. Indeed, the prospect of establishing bases in Yemen has been mentioned prominently in militant communiqués and in Saudi government statements since 2006.

Qatar plans to host a peace conference for Darfur, where the regime of Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir is accused of conniving in human rights crimes. Al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.

The ‘hard stop’ armed takedown of a vehicle at a government checkpoint – a regular occurrence in 2004-05 – has become so rare that the unsuccessful 14 October attempt to stop a suspected terrorist vehicle in Eastern Riyadh was big news. The authorities seem to have the jihadist challenge under control, but Yemeni-based militants still pose a threat, as does potential ‘blow-back’ from Iraq

Iraq is the other major source of advanced terrorist capability in Saudi Arabia, leading the Kingdom to quietly take steps to reduce potential blowback. The September announcement of a mutual extradition treaty between Saudi Arabia and Iraq received little media coverage but represents a significant development. The treaty stipulated “the exchange of convicted prisoners… so that they serve the rest of..

Bank Markazi (Central Bank of Iran) governor Tahmasb Mazaheri has been replaced, at least on a temporary basis, by the bank's general secretary Mahmoud Bahmani, who is generally regarded as more malleable. Mazaheri had been increasingly isolated in his resistance to the president's high-spending populism since the departure, earlier this year, of Economics Minister Davoud Danesh Jaafari.

As Kuwait prepares for the 21 October start of the parliamentary session, Islamist assembly members are preparing to campaign for the amendment of Article 2 of the constitution to bring all legislation into compliance with Islamic principles.

When the renowned Doha-based Egyptian cleric and scholar Yusef Al-Qaradawi launched a fierce attack on Shiites – whom he deemed heretics – for supposedly infiltrating and undermining Sunni societies, he provoked dismay even among many of those who have hitherto listened to his views with respect. Then he chose to reaffirm his discomfiting message, dispelling any question that he could have been misquoted or misunderstood by the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm on the first occasion.

Although the word 'coup' has been thrown around regularly in Baghdad since 2004, it has typically related to an imagined American step to seize direct control of the government once again by ousting elected leaders. Now, for the first time since Saddam Hussein's fall, the prospect of a slow-burning military takeover of politics is re-emerging as a credible threat.

The greatest danger to the current Islamic Republican state comes not from foreign military action but from the possibility of a 'velvet revolution' internal wave of protest, believes Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Pasdaran) commander Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari. That is why Jafari has overhauled security structures, to complete the absorbtion of the Basij militias

With Ahmadinejad finding a second wind as Khamenei endorses nationalist populism, his conservative pragmatist rivals who now dominate the Majlis risk being outmanoeuvred as president and supreme leader unite in defying international opinion over the nuclear issue and continuing a high-spending domestic policy recipe that has fuelled surging inflation.

The Iraqi parliament on 24 September finally passed the Provincial Powers Bill. The hotly contested legislation must still be approved by the senior leadership, but even a concerted rearguard action by opponents such as Kurdish federal President Jalal

The western media remain focused on the prospects for US troop drawdowns and the Status of Forces Agreement, but on the ground it is the Arab/Kurdish confrontation that threatens to have even greater long-term significance, as federal troops and Peshmerga face off in northern cities, and a new Sunni politics emerges