France
France seeks Qatar defence cooperation amid tensions

Macedonia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, United States
US, Ukraine and Gulf coveting Macedonian arms group

Macedonian munitions manufacturer ATS Group is being closely watched by a number of Gulf states. The firm has formed a new advisory board with US and British veterans familiar with Gulf defence establishments, while expanding its products that could prove useful in Ukraine.

France, Qatar
Nexter-Arquus infantry fighting vehicle on agenda for Al Thani-Macron talks

Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's visit to Paris at the end of this month will focus on defence issues.

France
French ministries battle for influence over online counterinterference effort

The French foreign and defence ministries are vying for leadership on strategic communication in response to foreign propaganda, while Viginum, an agency created to fight online interference, and the intelligence services are increasingly cooperating on its monitoring.

The Intelligence Gazette
CIA and Taliban, UK geospatial intel, Russian control centre in Ukraine, Serbian BIA

Appointments, reforms and key issues: every Monday, Intelligence Online serves up snippets of news, big and small, from the global intelligence community. This week we hone in on Doha, Baghdad, London and Moscow.

United States/AfghanistanIslamabad and Doha aid CIA-Taliban meeting.

United KingdomIntelligence issues in British space strategy.

RussiaIntelligence services at heart of new Ukraine coordination council.

SerbiaVucic blends geopolitics with internal security.

Spotlight | Qatar
Former Indian cyber privateer Rajat Khare is helping Qatar keep the football World Cup safe

Entrepreneur Rajat Khare, who industrialised the practice of hacking for hire and now heads Luxembourg investment company Boundary Holding, keeps up close relations with Qatar. He has helped companies in his investment portfolio to win security contracts at this year's FIFA World Cup.

France, Indonesia, Qatar
Qatar's French Mirage head for Jakarta

Initially considered for training missions in France, then promised to Bulgaria, 12 French Air Force Mirage will instead wing their way to Indonesia, whose government is trying to wean itself off Russian materiel.

France, UAE
UAE's sovereign fund Tawazun seeks military procurement role in the French mould

Tawazun, the UAE's civil sovereign fund which handles military procurement, is being empowered to coordinate all state military programmes under the impetus of national security adviser Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The fund is seeking advisers to help it build a more structured local defence industry.

France, Qatar
CS Group and Thales hope for windfall from Franco-Qatari anti-drone warfare cooperation

With the 2022 Football World Cup looming, French companies have set their sights on Qatar's major anti-drone contracts. The firms are backed in their efforts by France's army, national gendarmerie and interior ministry.

Qatar
Barzan Holdings, Doha's mystery defence project, gets off the ground

The isolated emirate is poised to launch its own public defence investment fund.

Bettahar Boudjellal, the discreet guardian of Qatar's secrets

Based in Doha for over a decade, the Franco-Algerian lawyer may turn out to be an unexpected link in the chain between the PSG spying affair and the 'Qatargate' affair at the European parliament. The figure at the centre of the Paris football club inquiry, the lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane, recently launched legal action against him in Algeria, while Belgian investigators want to question him about his links to the MEP scandal.