The United States could not achieve its global goals without the co-operation of the UAE and other countries in the region, a former US diplomat said in the capital this week.

For most Qataris, the world's most watched sporting event represents a chance to offer a new image of their homeland and the wider Middle East. "This is not just for Qatar, but for the whole region," Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, wife of the country's ruler, told Reuters in an interview.

I attended the closing session of the Gulf Cooperation Councils (GCC) Summit in Abu Dhabi this year. As all the delegates arrived and were seated I would estimate at least a total of 60 people, I could not help but observe, from all the government delegations present, we were 10 women in attendance as part of these delegations. A clear reminder of the gender gap in our region.

Israel has dismissed Egyptian claims that a series of shark attacks in the Red Sea could have been the result of a plot carried out by its foreign intelligence agency, Mossad.

The latest round of WikiLeaks carried some bad news for Qatari public diplomacy, in the form of US embassy cables stating that the Qatari government is using Al Jazeera as a political bargaining tool.

Tehran has held a festival in an attempt to introduce Syrian culture and traditions to Iranians and boost cultural ties between the two countries. The festival was opened during a ceremony at Tehran's Bahman Cultural Center on December 4, 2010. Syrian ambassador to Iran Hamed Hassan attended the event along with a number of Iranian officials.

The diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have, among other things, fed the notion that America's partners in the Middle East would support a forceful, perhaps even military, response against the nuclear efforts of Iran.

Confidential cables by American diplomats in the region, revealed by WikiLeaks, expose weak and fearful Arab leaders who are dependent on US protection against real and imagined fears over Iran's potential possession of nuclear arms and its influence in the Arab world.