MUST-READS

• U.S. Training in Syria
  US To Send 400 Trainers and Hundreds More Troops for Syrian Train-and-Equip Mission

  Since December, administration officials have said that training program could begin as early as March in the three countries that have agreed to host the training: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. At least four training sites in those countries are being identified and the plan is to split the approximately 400 U.S. trainers and their accompanying support forces evenly across those sites for what is expected to be a six- to eight-week training cycle.

   
  • Washington Post - End Syria's War, UN Pleads, as Russia Steps Up Diplomacy
• Saudi Students in the US
  Saudi Student Who Caused Texas Army Post Bomb Scare Pleads Guilty

  Mutasim Abdul-Aziz H. Alati, 24, a college student from Saudi Arabia, has pleaded guilty to forcing his way onto San Antonio's Fort Sam Houston in an incident in which he claimed he had a bomb.

• Grand Mosque
  Project of the Century

  Thousands of workers are in a race against time to complete the King Abdullah Project for Expansion of the Grand Mosque in Makkah before the stipulated deadline. Islam’s holiest mosque will have a capacity to accommodate as many as 2 million faithful with the completion of the largest-ever expansion in its history.

• Global Oil Markets
  Brent falls more, Saudi Arabian king issues speech

  Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said in a speech read for him on Tuesday the country would deal with the challenge posed by lower oil prices "with a firm will" but gave no sign the world's top exporter was considering changing its policy of maintaining production in the face of fast-growing U.S. shale supplies.

  • Reuters - Saudi slashes monthly oil prices to Europe; trims U.S., ups Asia
  • Bloomberg - Saudi Official Reassures Public on King Abdullah’s Health
• 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.

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