MUST-READS

• U.S. Middle East Policy
  Opinion: President Obama’s Biggest Mideast Policy Challenges, 2015

  2015 is likely to be a pivotal year in the Middle East. Daesh/ ISIS will likely prove to be a flash in the pan, and could well suffer substantial setbacks in the next 12 months. But the hard diplomatic and political work of putting Iraq back together will remain (if it can be accomplished at all). Libya and Yemen may not be done falling apart, and their downward spiral into failed state status has security implications, for Europe if not directly for the US.

• Education
  Pearson Overtakes Saudi Arabian Education System

  Saudi Arabia will be steeped in Pearson, standards and assessments included.

• U.S. - Pakistan
  Congress Gives Pakistan 300 Million New Reasons to Fight Terror

  Washington has given Islamabad $11 billion over the past 11 years to reimburse Pakistan for its on-again, off-again efforts to combat militants operating along its porous border with Afghanistan. But with violence spiking in both countries, Congress has tightened a measure requiring the Pentagon to certify that Pakistan is a true ally in the anti-terrorism fight before it gives the country $300 million in fresh payments this fiscal year.

• Coffee
  The History Of Coffee

  The Arabs were the first, not only to cultivate coffee but also to begin its trade.  By the fifteenth century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the sixteenth century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.

• U.S. Military
  America’s Military: Were the wars worth the cost?

  The longest war in American history has officially come to a close. And for many service members, the overwhelming feeling is: good riddance. Personally, many troops simply are tired of deploying there. Professionally, many wonder what the 13-year war really accomplished.

• U.S. - Iran
  US, Iran to hold bilateral talks in Geneva

  The United States and Iran will hold a two-day bilateral meeting in Geneva next week, Dec. 15-16, ahead of a meeting of political directors from Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (P5+1), as the parties redouble efforts to reach a final nuclear deal after talks were extended last month.

• Sunni Tribes in Iraq
  In Iraq, Sunni tribes pay heavy toll for joining fight against Islamic State

  Local leaders say IS intimidation is undermining the ability of any tribe to fight back, by using sleeper cells and systematic cleansing of anti-IS figures within the tribe. The result is that IS is proving much more difficult for the tribes to take on than was Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) , whom home-grown Sunni groups fought during the Sunni “Awakening” of 2006-2008 with support from the US.

• Economy
  Saudi inflation at slowest rise since at least 2012

  Saudi Arabia's Central Department of Statistics released the following November consumer price data on Thursday, showing inflation at its lowest level since at least September 2012, when the current series began.

  • Arab News - Saudi nonoil exports hit SR177bn
• Tadawul Opening
  Saudi Arabia Still On Track To Open Stock Market In H1 – CMA

  Saudi Arabia is still on track to open its stock market to direct foreign investment in the first half of 2015, the head of the market regulator said on Monday.

• King Abdullah 1924-2015
  King Abdullah Dies, Disrupting Saudi Arabia at a Sensitive Time

  The king’s death comes at a delicate time for the oil-rich kingdom, which is struggling with the impact of plunging oil prices domestically, the rise of the Islamic State, and an Iran’s whose influence is growing across the Mideast as its proxies take on increasingly powerful roles in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Abdullah’s successor will also face an intensifying crisis in Yemen, whose Saudi-backed government has been effectively overthrown by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. A Saudi official said in a recent interview that Riyadh sees the future of Yemen as “an existential threat.”

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