Search results

Qatari Emiri Air Force (QEAF) commander Lieutenant General Salem Bin Mohammed Bin Aqeel Al-Nabit has been promoted to Qatari Armed Forces chief of staff, succeeding Lieutenant General Ghanim Bin Shaheen Al-Ghanim, who has been made endowments and Islamic affairs minister. The change was announced via Emiri decree 60/2021 on 19 October.

Months-old comments by Lebanon’s information minister George Kordahi on the Yemen war set off a diplomatic storm in late October. In an interview originally given on 5 August to Al Jazeera, but first aired on 25 October, he said the Houthi rebels in Yemen were “defending themselves… against an external aggression” and that “homes, villages, funerals and weddings were being bombed” by the coalition.

Sheikh Rashid Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has been named chair of the newly-formed National Council for the Arts.

A senior border police commander has been killed in Kerman province, in a clash which took place with what Iran described as ‘miscreants’ in Samsur, more than 200km west of the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Colonel Mehdi Tousang was one of ten rangers killed or wounded in the incident.

Capital Governorate governor Sheikh Hisham Bin Abdulrahman Al-Khalifa has been named Ministry of Interior undersecretary for nationality, passports and residence affairs.

More than 400 Iraqi citizens returned to their home country from Belarus on 18 November, on board an Iraqi Airways flight arranged by the federal Ministry of Transport. Several thousand Iraqis are thought to have travelled to Belarus to try and enter the European Union.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah made a brief tour of the Gulf in November, starting in Manama on 22 November and moving on to Abu Dhabi the following day. It came as the parliament in Amman began debating proposed political reforms which would see the prime minister chosen by parliamentary majority rather than picked by the king.

The UAE’s relationship with the United Kingdom has become characterised by warm state-to-state interactions and large investment deals. The wealth of Abu Dhabi coupled with the commercial drive of Dubai make an attractive partner for the idea of a ‘Global Britain’ that Prime Minister Boris Johnson likes to promote following the UK’s exit from the European Union.

GSN Risk Grade: B↓3 Haitham in Qatar: Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said made a rare visit to another GCC country, with a trip to Qatar on 22-23 November. Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani hosted a lunch on his arrival and the two leaders held talks and witnessed the signing of six agreements covering cooperation on military affairs, taxation, labour, investment, tourism and transport.

The Houthis are currently focused on two priorities: the lifting of restrictions on Sanaa international airport and Hodeida seaport; and securing the flow of weapons to retain a credible strike capability into Saudi Arabia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 28 November he planned to visit the UAE in February, in a further sign of warming relations between the two regional rivals, whose conflicts had threatened to get out of hand.

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz remains in the resort town of Neom in the north-west of the kingdom, where he has been ensconced since soon after leaving King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh in late July 2020, following treatment for an inflamed gallbladder.

Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (Nejada) commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani told a press conference on 27 November it will soon start construction of the new Besat-class heavy submarine. A GSN analyst said that, based on precedent, this is likely to be done with assistance from North Korea.

S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Bahrain’s sovereign rating to stable from negative on 26 November, citing its expectation that the government will implement further measures to reduce the budget deficit and will also benefit from support from other Gulf sovereigns.

Doha is in discussions to supply natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria. The matter was raised at a meeting in Doha between Lebanese energy and water minister Walid Fayad and his Qatari counterpart and QatarEnergy chief Saad Bin Sherida Al-Kaabi.