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The sale of a 2% stake in Saudi Telecom Company has raised $1bn for the sovereign wealth fund to plough back into other domestic deals. Meanwhile STC is said to be considering increasing its investment in Spanish telco Telefónica.

Long associated with Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Hamas, Qatar has insisted that it has not ordered the Palestinian militant group to close its Doha office – a key point of contact in Qatar’s now-suspended mediation efforts to end the Gaza conflict – but the Hamas leadership is no longer in the country and is said to be sizing up alternative bases around the region including Türkiye.

The Iraq Fund for Development is hoping to nail down a $3bn commitment made by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund 18 months ago. At the same time, IFD is also holding discussions with the Dubai International Financial Centre over support for domestic tech companies. However, despite an upturn in Iraq’s economic prospects, local entrepreneurs and investors complain that not enough has been done to tackle corruption and bureaucratic inertia.

Riyadh has signed partnership deals with the military reserves of Indiana and Oklahoma, mirroring similar deals struck by Oman and Qatar in the past. Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb also called into Riyadh in mid-November, as part of a two-country trip to the region which also took in Kuwait.

Ruling family member Sheikh Saoud Salem Al-Sabah has been appointed managing director of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, after Ghanem Al-Ghunaiman was unexpectedly replaced.

The days of Ankara focusing its attention in the GCC solely on Qatar are now firmly in the past, as recent agreements point to Türkiye steadily growing its military and commercial links with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, as well as with Doha.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa has taken over as transport and telecoms minister from Mohammed Al-Kaabi, while the social development file has passed from Osama Al-Asfoor to Osama Al-Alawi, in a small reshuffle of the Bahraini cabinet.

The new UAE Aid Agency will take charge of the UAE’s international disaster relief activities, a role until now filled by the Emirates Red Crescent. The latter has become embroiled in allegations that the UAE has used a relief effort on the Chad-Sudan border as cover to funnel weapons to one of the main combatants in the Sudanese civil war.

Iranian officials have revived the idea of building a tunnel under the Gulf to Qatar – an idea that previously suggested in 2022. The megaproject would require a tunnel with an underwater section of at least 185km – almost five times further than the current longest submarine tunnel in the world. Officials are due to hold discussions in Doha in the coming weeks, but the limited levels of bilateral trade mean the megaprojects is unlikely to make economic sense.

Sheikh Mubarak Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was appointed by emiri decree on 13 November, some three months after the previous post-holder, Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Salem Al-Sabeh, died. He is only the second person to take charge of the force since it was established in the 1960s.

Sheikh Theyab, son of UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, has taken on a number of other roles in the international aid sector over the past year, including chairman of the International Humanitarian and Philanthropic Council set up in January.

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim has overseen a centralisation of power in the Emiri Diwan, to move away from the style of previous governments. This family tree of the Al-Thani shows the main lines of the Qatari ruling family, including branches now quite distant from the Emir whose members remain influential. Key individuals are linked to profiles and curated material from GSN’s unrivalled multi-decade archive of reporting..

The eighth government reshuffle under Emir Tamim Al-Thani sees minister of state for defence affairs Khalid Al-Attiyah ending his long government career. There have also been changes in the leadership of the Emiri Diwan, the Qatar Investment Authority and the State Security Agency. GSN takes a closer look at the changes.

QatarEnergy has bought a 23% interest in Egypt’s North El-Dabaa (H4) Block in the Mediterranean Sea for an undisclosed amount.

The Saudi government-owned Istedamah Holding was set up in late 2017, seven weeks after hundreds of senior  figures were arrested in an anti-corruption sweep in early November and held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel Riyadh. Istedamah is now emerging as an important institution in Riyadh’s reshaping of the kingdom’s business environment. The full extent of its portfolio is still unclear but more details are emerging.