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After a period when the governance reform initiative has drifted, there is no time to waste as King Abdullah consolidates his authority with the release of prominent dissidents and an invigorated programme of government action.

After a period when the governance reform initiative has drifted, there is no time to waste as King Abdullah consolidates his authority with the release of prominent dissidents and an invigorated programme of government action.

Shia politicians dominate the debate over Iraq’s new constitution, which Washington wants out in August or soon thereafter, but this is not enough for many southern Shiites – they want control over ‘their’ oil resources.

Arguments over frontier demarcation, maritime sovereignty and rights to economic exploitation are resurfacing along the southern shores of the Gulf, as hopes of regional integration are ensnared in the difficult evolution of relationships between the small coastal monarchies and Saudi Arabia.

Voters will decide between ex-president Rafsanjani and former Tehran mayor Ahmadinejad on 24 June, but whoever inherits this presidency of such limited power faces a period of difficult questions.

Optimistic health bulletins are not enough to dispel questions about Saudi Arabia’s long-term future. GSN examines the political and security aspects surrounding what many believe is King Fahd’s final illness.

France hopes it has picked up a big deal in Saudi Arabia, the traditionally solid US ally which is emerging as arguably the last bastion of the European combat aircraft market in the Gulf. Meanwhile US giant Lockheed Martin is tightening its grip on GCC procurement as the world’s big aerospace firms battle for dominance in the next decade.

Failure to give women voting rights in local elections is a symbolic setback for the government that imperils the wider momentum for change. With further delays expected to reformist legislation such as the Project Kuwait northern oil fields scheme, the political impasse is provoking questions about Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed’s leadership style and Kuwait’s more long-term direction.

An atmosphere of frantic activity prevails in Manama as the government and political class face up to the prospect of Bahrain’s second national poll under King Hamad’s constitution, the 2006 parliamentary elections.

It’s crunch time for Kuwait’s modernisation drive, with the National Assembly set to vote within weeks on women’s political rights and plans to bring IOCs into the northern oilfields. There is still speculation that parliament could be dissolved if it blocks these emblematic reforms.

The 19 March suicide attack on a soft expatriate target in Qatar showed that even those states where Islamist radicals have been allowed to live in parallel to Western communities are not immune from Jihadist violence.

Liberals have taken a beating as conservative Islam, Shiite community organisations, tribal or family ties and local standing have proved the main influences at play as a minority of male Saudis vote for the first time.

North Korea may have the bomb, but Syria and Iran remain the foremost targets in American neo-conservatives’ sights. GSN examines the Hariri killing and the apparent cycle of mutual impotence in which the Syrian and US governments are trapped, in the first of a two-part series examining Washington’s approach to ‘pariah states’.

Iraq’s election will bring Arab Shiites a major share of power for the first time outside the Levant. But GCC governments remain ambivalent about recognising the importance of their Shia communities.

Critics fear that official tolerance of intolerant rhetoric is offering an excuse to the jihadis behind the latest wave of violence and should be tackled – even if Kuwaiti society has long accommodated Islamist groups.