MUST-READS

• Saudi Counter-terrorism
  Saudi Arabia’s terrorist list declines

  The number of wanted suspects on six lists published by Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry in 2003 has declined from 263 to 132. The updates on the lists, posted on the Interior Ministry's website, showed that the number of people wanted dropped following the death of 57 wanted individuals in clashes with security personnel, and two others who died outside Saudi Arabia, Arab News reported. The interior ministry said there are 24 detainees on the list and that search operations are still in progress for the remaining. A ministry statement said 19 men were arrested and then released.

• Saudi Arabia and Yemen
  Opinion: Saudi Arabia and the Houthis

  We should realize the importance of the massive change that took place in Yemen last Monday. It is the birth of a new Yemen, added to the birth of a new Syria, a new Iraq and a new Arab world. However, I'll start the story from far away, from Italy to be exact.

  • Reuters - Saudi Arabia fears Yemeni tumult may boost its main foe Iran
• Reflections on ISIS
  Opinion: Middle East facing own dark shadows

  YET perhaps one of the most interesting developments has been the rise of a new trend of self-criticism among Arab intellectuals, who are increasingly willing to say in public that the rise of ISIS should be seen as part of a broader narrative of failure in the Middle East. The present crisis, wrote Ms Hanin Ghaddar, a Lebanese-based intellectual, "is more about understanding our shortcomings, rather than actually overcoming them".

• Mobile Phones
  Virgin Mobile Launches Services In Saudi Arabia

  Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa (VMMEA), part-owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, launched telecoms services in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, beginning the biggest shake-up in the Kingdom’s telecoms sector in six years. VMMEA is launching two brands after benefiting from the national telecoms regulator’s decision to order the country’s three mobile operators to each host a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in an effort to stimulate competition. The two brands being launched by VMMEA are Virgin Mobile, aimed at the youth market, and Friendi Mobile, targeting Saudi’s expatriate workers.

• Palestine and the UN
  Palestinian leader accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ at UN

  Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of carrying out a "war of genocide" in Gaza in his speech at the UN General Assembly. Mr Abbas said Israeli "war crimes" in Gaza should be punished, but stopped short of saying he would take the issue to the International Criminal Court. His speech brought strong condemnation from Israel and from the US, which described it as "offensive".

• U.S. and ISIS
  Obama: U.S. misjudged the rise of the Islamic State, ability of Iraqi army

  Obama’s remarks were his frankest yet in acknowledging that the rise of the Islamic State took the United States by surprise. The president, however, refused to accept the premise that the exit of U.S. troops from Iraq was to blame, arguing that Iraq “squandered” the opportunity to suppress extremism and build a lasting democracy after U.S. troops left in 2011 “because the prime minister, Maliki, was much more interested in consolidating his Shia base” than in national unity. Obama instead blamed the ongoing turmoil in Syria for the rise of the Islamic State.

  • AP - U.S.-Led Airstrikes Hit Syria Oil Refinery by Turkey
  • Washington Post - Deputy National Security Adviser Says Countering ISIS Nothing Like Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
  • Daily Beast - Opinion: Why Obama Can’t Say His Spies Underestimated ISIS
  • Military Times - Poll: 70% of troops say no more boots on the ground in Iraq
  • USA Today - Cost of Air War Against ISIS Already Near $1 Billion as Strategy Shifts
• Arms Deal for Lebanon
  Saudi Arabia asks for clarification on weapons deal for Army

  The trilateral deal, Lebranchu said, requires “finer print.” Certain “political elements” of the deal were not appropriately clear for all the parties involved, she said, without offering further details. “We need to clear up any ambiguities.”

  • Middle East Briefing - Israel Prepares for `Inevitable’ Lebanon War with Trepidations
• U.S. - Yemen
  US orders evacuation of embassy staff in Yemen citing security concerns

  The US State Department on Thursday ordered some of its diplomats and other government workers at the US embassy in Yemen to leave the country because of deteriorating security amid unrest and sectarian clashes that have left Shia rebels in control of the capital.

  • Stars and Stripes - Embassy Issues Security Warning for U.S. Personnel in Turkey
• Journalist Deaths
  Militant in Syria beheading videos identified: FBI

  A masked Islamic State militant seen wielding a knife in videos at the beheading of two Americans has been identified, FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday, but he declined to give the person's name or nationality. The videos released in August and September of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff showed a masked Islamic State militant brandishing a knife and speaking English with a British accent.

• Sectarianism
  The limits of the ‘sectarian’ framing in Yemen

  It was 2005 when my Yemeni friends first started talking seriously about their fears that the Houthis would march on the capital of Sanaa. The Houthis were never closer than the nearby province of Amran back then. There was a media blackout, and most of our information came from journalist friends who were in and around the city of Saada, then the center of the conflict, distributing news via SMS.

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