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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.

Several leaders sent deputies to the 42nd Gulf Co-operation Council summit in Riyadh in mid-December, which nevertheless made progress in reuniting the regional bloc after several years of division. Poor health prevented some heads of state from attending but this was not the only reason.

During his visit to Oman in early January, Saudi chief of general staff Fayyad Bin Hamid Al-Ruwaili met a number of key officials. Who were they?

The National Assembly returned on 4 January with tensions between the government and opposition members of parliament (MPs) soon emerging. After the new cabinet took the constitutional oath, 13 MPs walked out in protest and there was an immediate request for a grilling

Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai retain GSN’s highest grade for political risk and the former also for economic and financial risk in this new Risk Management Report. Dubai’s economic risk rating is unchanged but is a notch lower than its neighbour’s with negative momentum. Recent developments include the largest budget in the Ajman’s history evidence of an economic recovery in Dubai, Sharjah government expectations of a significant increase in revenues and the signing of a contract initiating the Al-Sinniyah island development in Umm Al-Quwain.

Foreign security officials poured into Doha in late January to attend two events hosted by Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, celebrating graduation ceremonies at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) Police College and Al-Zaeem Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Attiyah Air College.

Protocol often seems to overwhelm normal news flow in Bahrain, as senior officials – most of them from the Al-Khalifa family – receive foreign visitors and congratulate each other at dutifully-reported occasions and in myriad telegrams. Any hint of speculation about the balance of power in the ruling Al-Khalifa family remains deeply hidden.

Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah left for Germany on 20 January on what was termed a private visit – the terminology usually deployed when he travels for medical treatment.

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz chaired a cabinet meeting at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on 25 January – his first known trip to the capital since July 2020, when he had received treatment at King Faisal Specialist Hospital for an inflamed gallbladder.

Regional and international organisations Iran returns to the OIC: Three Iranian diplomats arrived in Saudi Arabia in mid-January to reopen the Islamic Republic’s representative office at the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC).

A scandal over healthcare procurement during the Covid-19 pandemic is threatening to break out and bring with it further discord between the National Assembly (parliament) and Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah’s government – which has already seen two ministerial resignations in the latest phase of Kuwait’s political crisis.