MUST-READS

• Intelligence Forecasting
  What the Intelligence Community Thought Would Happen in 2015 – in 2000

  Every four years, the National Intelligence Council - the arm of the Intelligence Community tasked with developing long-term outlooks - releases its Global Trends report. It’s an unclassified publication that uses open source information gathering techniques to plot out the world 15 to 20 years out.

• Iran and ISIS
  Special Report: Inside Iraq’s ‘killing zones’

  Shi'ite militias and Iraqi security forces, engaged in an all-or-nothing struggle with radical Sunni group Islamic State, are blasting the Sunni farmlands that encircle Baghdad with heavy weapons. Military officers call their target areas in the rural belt "killing zones."

  • Stars and Stripes - Hundreds of U.S. Troops in Anbar
  • The Hill - Nations conduct largest effort against ISIS
• Ali Al-Naimi
  Energy Personality of the Year: Ali al-Naimi

  According to the conventional analysis of Saudi power, Mr Naimi could at any point in the last six months have decided to cut Saudi production to stabilise the market at whatever level he chose. The fact that he has not done so opens up a cascade of consequences which are only just beginning to work through the system.

• Security
  Fingerprinting declared compulsory in Saudi Arabia

  Fingerprint registration for male and female expatriates will be completed by Dec. 23, 2014, for all Passports Department (Jawazat) services except the renewal of residence permits (iqamas), Jawazat spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmed Fahd Al-Luhaidan said on Sunday.

• GCC Summit - Doha
  The GCC and the Supreme Council Summits – Infographics

  Leaders from across the GCC met this week in the 35th Supreme Council. Saudi Arabia was represented by Crown Prince Salman, alongside leaders from Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Oman, in consultations that tackled regional crises and intra-GCC challenges. SUSRIS has compiled a number of reports on the outcome of the Supreme Council that you can find indexed at our Special Section “Gulf Cooperation Council Doha Summit 2014.”

• Air Conditioning
  Saudi air-conditioning market poised to exceed $2.5 by 2019

  The report comes at a time when demand for air-conditioners in the Saudi market has witnessed a significant growth. In 2013, the Kingdom imported from China and Thailand nearly 2.4 million A/C units for the value of SR2.7 billion, Al-Eqtisadiah daily said.

• Saudi Oil Policy
  Saudi Aramco to renegotiate some contracts on low oil price -CEO

  Saudi Aramco will renegotiate some contracts and postpone some projects due to falling oil prices, the head of Saudi Arabia's state oil company said on Tuesday, stressing the top crude exporter will not single handedly balance the global oil market.

• King Abdullah 1924-2015
  Oil jumps as Saudi king’s death feeds market uncertainty

  Oil prices rose on Friday after the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah added more uncertainty to an oil market that has more than halved over the last six months. King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz died early on Friday and his brother Salman became king of the world's top oil exporter.

  • WSJ (paywall) - Death of King Unlikely to Alter Saudi Oil Policy
• Israel - Hezbollah
  Israel on high alert for possible Hezbollah retaliation

  Israel is on high alert for possible attacks from the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah following an airstrike on Hezbollah fighters in Syria, Israeli defense officials said Tuesday. Israel has boosted deployment of its "Iron Dome" anti-missile aerial defense system along its northern frontier, which borders Lebanon and Syria, and has increased surveillance activities in the area, the officials said. Israel's Security Cabinet is scheduled to meet to discuss a potential escalation in violence, they said.

  • Huffington Post - Israel Strike Underscores Security Concerns In Syria Beyond ISIS, Upping Stakes For U.S.
  • McClatchy - Iran: Israeli air strike killed general advising Syrian government forces
• Raif Badawi
  Charlie attack raises stakes for Saudi Arabia in flogging case

  (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ruling family is coming under pressure from Western countries over its weekly flogging of writer Raif Badawi for "insulting Islam", but it appears more worried about the risk of offending domestic conservatives if it lets him off.

  • NYT (Paywall) - U.N. Denounces Flogging of Blogger
  • Reuters - Saudi Arabia postpones activist's flogging: source
  • MSN - Canadian arms sale drawing more scrutiny as concern grows over the kingdom’s flogging of a man with ties to Canada.
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