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Emerging apparently from nowhere, the Neom development’s futuristic urban vision The Line has attracted a lot of international media attention. This is not surprising as this area of Neom alone is intended to create 380,000 jobs and contribute SR180bn ($48bn) to Saudi gross domestic product by 2030; a figure greater than neighbouring Jordan’s entire current GDP. The development will be powered entirely by hydrogen and other renewable energy, underlining the wider Neom project’s status as by far the Public Investment Fund (PIF)’s most ambitious scheme – a blend of state-of-the-art design and public relations gloss intended to ensure Saudi Arabia is associated with global innovation, rather than human rights abuses and intolerance.

The early plans for Neom were put together by a predictable line up of global consultants including Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company and Oliver Wyman. Since then, a succession of international firms have won large contracts: US giant Bechtel is providing design, construction and project management services across Neom, and also overseeing utilities and a transport system. New York Stock Exchange-listed Aecom has project management work on the 45km2 Neom Bay phase one and Silver Beach districts; it also has a contract for transport and utilities and is a consultant on the Industrial City section.

Sultan Haitham’s sweeping changes to the Omani military’s senior ranks may raise the question of the continuance of the United Kingdom’s Loan Service arrangement, under which approximately 90 British serving personnel commanded by a British major general work in Omani uniform within all branches of the Sultan’s Armed Forces. The late Sultan Qaboos was adamant that the arrangement should remain, despite internal pressure that it should be scrapped.

Minister of National Guard Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar Bin Abdelaziz was appointed chairman of a new company, Kidana, in January. Kidana is tasked with developing holy sites in the kingdom; it will be based in Mina. It is the first company owned by the Royal Commission for Makkah Al-Mukarramah and the Holy Sites (RCMC). RCMC was established by royal order in June 2018 and is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

BP has announced the $2.59bn sale of a 20% participating interest in the major non-conventional gas producing Block 61 to Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company (PTTEP), as the UK major restructures its global strategy and portfolio. BP will remain the block’s operator, with a reduced 40% interest. The other Block 61 equity holders are national oil company OQ (with 30%) and Malaysia’s Petronas (10%).

In another major statement of intent about using renewables in energy-intensive sectors previously dominated by hydrocarbons, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) on 18 January started to supply Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) with 560,000MWh/yr of solar power generated at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Solar Park (MBR Solar Park). Branding was attached to a project that gives Dubai a notable world first by producing aluminium using solar energy: EGA said the product would be marketed under the name CelestiAL.

Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Al-Maktoum, daughter of Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR), was the focus of renewed international media attention in mid-February, after the BBC’s investigative Panorama programme broadcast a number of video messages sent secretly to friends in which ‘the princess’ described being detained in a “jail villa” and fearing for her life.

Air Force commander Lieutenant General Shihab Jahid Hama has insisted Iraqi technicians will be able to maintain its F-16 aircraft if and when international contractors finally leave the country. This followed an official US report that indicated local pilots refused to fly the jets when American technicians were absent last year. The National Iraqi News Agency quoted Hama on 13 February as saying “the Iraqi pilots and technicians working on these aircraft are at the top of professionalism… and they are doing their job right now.”

Budget talks in Baghdad are going down to the wire over the thorny issue of allocations to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The negotiations are the latest manifestation of a long-running dispute between Iraq’s centre and its periphery that has proved stubbornly immune to resolution since the late Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was ousted in 2003. There is added friction in the Baghdad-Erbil standoff, with Iraqi Shia parties increasingly vexed at what they view as a resurgence of Kurdish independence hopes.

Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi has emerged as a clear front-runner among potential candidates in the June presidential election, according to an opinion poll carried out in January and February by Iranpoll and the University of Maryland Center for International and Security Studies. When asked in an open question who they would like to be the next president, 28.2% of the Iranians polled named Raeisi, followed by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (15.1%) and conservative Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (parliament) speaker and ex-mayor of Tehran Mohammad Baghar Ghalibaf (6.4%).

London think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)’s annual Military Balance shows that Oman retains its position of having the largest defence budget as a percentage of GDP, at 12%, up from 9.9% in 2019. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are in joint fourth place in the IISS rankings of the world’s biggest defence spenders, at 7.1% of GDP each. Iraq, the UAE and Qatar also make the global top 15 on this measure, with 5.8%, 5.6% and 4.4% of their respective GDPs.

Qatar and the UAE used Kuwait’s National Day on 25 February as the moment to name two roads after the late Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who died in September 2020.

The National Museum is setting up a new section dedicated to the late Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said, giving an account of his life and featuring a number of items donated by his successor Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said.

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi sparked a round of diplomatic protests between Iran and Turkey, after telling the Kurdish Rûdaw news agency that Ankara should end its military intervention in Iraq. “Turkish forces should not pose a threat or violate Iraqi soil,” Masjedi said in late February.

Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan requested budget support from the UAE, either as a grant or a soft loan, during a 19-22 February visit to Abu Dhabi, accompanied by foreign affairs and tourism minister Sylvestre Radegonde. Ramkalawan was last in Abu Dhabi only in December.