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Sohar International Bank announced a binding merger deal with HSBC Oman on 16 November. Sohar will take over HSBC Oman’s assets, with the latter’s shareholders paid in cash and Sohar shares.

Saudi Prince Waleed Bin Nasser Bin Fahd, from the ruling family’s Al-Faisal/Farhan branch, spoke about the development of the kingdom’s food sector at the early November Gulfood Manufacturing conference in Dubai.

Executive Council of Abu Dhabi member Theyab Bin Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, one of the UAE president’s sons, inaugurated the second edition of the Abu Dhabi Moments initiative on 11 November, three years after the first running of the scheme.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is in talks to buy all or part of commodities trader Gunvor Group, according to a 21 September Bloomberg report. Any deal is likely to see Gunvor combined with Adnoc’s own trading activities.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) pulled out of a visit to Algeria to take part in the 31st Council of the League of Arab States summit on 1-2 November, citing medical advice.

Norway's DNO confirmed that it had bought Mondoil Enterprises from the UAE’s RAK Petroleum. Mondoil holds a 33.3% stake in Foxtrot International, which has interests in offshore gas and associated liquids in Côte d'Ivoire. The move is part of DNO’s efforts to expand beyond its current focus areas of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the North Sea.

Saudi Arabia’s Ajlan & Bros Holding Group plans to set up a mining and metals exchange in a joint venture with National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX), which could serve to deepen the local market and continue the family-owned conglomerate’s rapid growth.

While BBC Persian is causing problems for the authorities in Tehran, the UK broadcaster continues to suffer death by a thousand cuts amid austerity at home.

Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa was in Fontainebleau, France, to watch his son and representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa compete in a horse-riding endurance race.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to buy British Tornado aircraft and Hawk jet trainers was announced shortly after it became known that the Reagan administration had decided not to include 40 additional F-15 combat aircraft for Saudi Arabia in its official request for arms sales to Congress. The British sale was immediately denounced by Israel; a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry said the deal was “escalating the arms race in the Middle East to a level that undermines the stability of the region”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Jeddah on 24 September, where he was received at the airport by Mecca region governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal and finance minister Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan. He held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at Al-Salam Palace before flying out later that day to the UAE, where the most important elements of his weekend tour were finalised.

After months of speculation, it appears the UAE has gone ahead with a proposed purchase of a low-level air defence system from Israel.

Iran appears to have resumed its campaign of striking tankers in the Gulf of Oman, after the Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command (Navcent) reported that the Pacific Zircon oil products tanker had been struck by an Iranian-made explosive drone off Fujairah, en route to Argentina.

A contract for the management of air traffic control at Afghanistan’s main airports is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, with companies from the UAE, Qatar and Turkey in the running, after Abu Dhabi firms won a big ground services and security contract for Herat, Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif. It is hoped improved services will encourage more airlines to return to Taliban-run Afghanistan.

In his first years in power, Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq has had to establish his legitimacy and cope with fiscal pressures and the challenge of Covid-19, but with reforms bedding in and oil prices rising, the prospects for Oman look brighter than for some time. GSN analyses the trends since Sultan Qaboos’ death and profiles some of the key players in contemporary Oman.