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Veteran prime minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa has undertaken further health checks at the Bahrain Defence Force’s Royal Medical Services hospital in Manama and has now left the country for additional unspecified medical care. King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa visited his uncle in the BDF hospital on 20 November and expressed “deepest congratulations… on his good health and wellness,” according to an official statement. The following day it was announced Prince Khalifa had left “on a private trip abroad” for further medical tests.

One of the younger – and low profile – sons of Crown Prince Salman has married a daughter of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalid Al-Majfal in Riyadh. Saud is one of Salman’s sons with his second wife Fahda Al-Hithlain; his full brother is Mohammed, recently appointed head of his father’s court.

Following his early July meeting in Doha with Tunisian interior minister Ali Laarayedh (GSN 927/7), heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad has visited Tunisia for two days of talks.

Amid serious sectarian unrest and growing suspicion of Tehran, the ruling monarchy is enlisting foreign assistance in a carefully orchestrated clampdown on the opposition.

Saudi officials, including foreign minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan who was eloquent but harassed in Davos, have responded with incredulity to reports the mobile phone of Amazon’s billionaire founder – and Washington Post owner – Jeff Bezos was hacked in 2018 via a WhatsApp message sent from Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)’s account. Evidence that will be much debated was provided in a report commissioned by Bezos from US advisory FTI Consulting’s cybersecurity expert Anthony Ferrante; it was passed to selected media outlets and United Nations special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and David Kaye.

The King Faisal Foundation announced the 2013 winners of its annual international awards on 29 January. The awards, established in 1979, are intended to function as an ‘Arab Nobel Prize’; according to the foundation, 15 previous winners have gone on to become Nobel laureates.

Abu Dhabi made no attempt to disguise its glee at the 3 July overthrow of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Within hours of his demise, and the more widespread unseating of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership by Egypt’s military, the UAE’s state news agency issued a statement from foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, noting that the UAE was “following with satisfaction” the developments in Egypt, and that the “great Egyptian army proves, once again, that it is the strong shield and the protector” of the people.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC) elected a new president to succeed Ahmad Jarba on 9 July, in the latest effort to inject momentum into an increasingly marginalised opposition. Hadi Al-Bahra is viewed as a smoother operator than Saudi-backed Jarba, who had served the maximum two six-month terms. While Jarba’s rural tribal connections (as a member of the cross-border Shammar tribe) worked well for the SNC’s chief funder Saudi Arabia, Bahra is viewed as the better diplomat; as head of the SNC’s Geneva peace talks negotiating team, he is also well known internationally.

Another 12 people have joined the list of those on trial in the UAE on charges of sedition, bringing the total number of defendants to 106. All are thought to have links to Jamiat Al-Islah wa Tawjih, an Islamist group related to the Muslim Brotherhood. They face charges including seeking to overthrow the UAE leadership, raising funds to support such efforts, infiltrating government institutions and spreading propaganda.

Sharjah-born Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Thani has become the first Qatari to climb Mount Everest. Part of a team called ‘Arabs with Altitude’, Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by the first Palestinian to summit Everest, Raed Zidan, and the first Saudi woman and youngest Arab to do so, 25-year-old Raha Muharrak. He was raising money for Qatar’s Reach out to Asia charity, which is chaired by Emir Sheikh Hamad’s daughter Sheikha Mayassa.

In a deal as important for the European defence industry as it is for Gulf security, Kuwait has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy 28 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, in a deal understood to be worth up to $9bn. The jets are manufactured by a consortium of Italy’s Finmeccanica, BAE Systems and Airbus Group. The Kuwait Air Force is expected to receive new-build, third-tranche, swing-role versions of the Typhoon; the planes will have electronic-scanned radar and a weapons package.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been questioning current and former Airbus Group employees in connection with possible corruption at GPT Special Project Management (GPT), a subsidiary of Airbus, in relation to its Saudi contracts. Airbus, previously known as EADS, said in a statement to media that it “understands that four former and current employees were recently interviewed – along with MoD [British Ministry of Defence] officials – as part of a wide-ranging SFO investigation into subsidiary GPT”.

Sanaa had been hoping its Gulf neighbours – and Saudi Arabia in particular – would help plug its massive budget deficit at the June donor meeting, now postponed.

On 16 February, US director of national intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee there were signs Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) fighters may already be fighting in Syria. There is growing evidence to support this view, and growing concern that the conflict in Syria could merge with violence in Iraq to form a single, transnational conflict zone reaching from the Iranian border to the eastern Mediterranean.

France’s Technip has been awarded a contract for project managing consultancy services for the engineering, procurement and construction phase of the Kerbala refinery. The company completed the front-end engineering design in 2010. Technip described the award as “significant”, implying between E50m ($66m) and E100m. The company has won a series of contracts in the region over the past year, including in Dubai and Kuwait.