Summary: as Egypt’s debt load mounts inexorably the rate of reform including the demand from lenders to demilitarise the economy is moving so slowly it may precipitate a banking collapse.
Summary: a short ceasefire that was ignored more than it was honoured is coming to an end and the prognosis for a peaceful solution remains grim unless the US and other Western nations bring pressure to bear on the states backing rival sides: Egypt and the UAE.
Summary: for more than a decade the government of Bahrain has used the harsh repression of individual rights and the banning of protests to silence critics but this week saw the detention of a prominent cleric bring people defiantly into the streets.
Summary: COP28, scheduled to take place in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December, has invited the Syrian president to attend as the Arab world continues its rehabilitation of a leader once reviled as a pariah.
Summary: as peace talks remain stuck in uncertainty, one piece of good news is the release in two tranches of cohorts of prisoners held by both sides of the conflict.
Summary: talks need to resume to achieve a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East, and build on the recent thawing of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Summary: as his allies and former Arab critics rally around the Syrian president he is using the lure of lucrative reconstruction contracts to strengthen his position.
Summary: as outside players become more engaged and the violence in Sudan gathers pace so too does the risk of a major conflagration that could engulf the region.
Summary: Yemen remains a country where tragedy in the form of a deadly stampede and hope in the shape of a prison release ahead of a potential peace deal stand side by side.
Summary: with civilian casualties mounting two generals battle for supremacy while Abu Dhabi watches with growing concern as the military leaders it has backed and the country it has heavily invested in threatens to slide toward all-out civil war.
