MUST-READS

• SEC
  Saudi Electricity in talks with EDF to join UK nuclear project

  Saudi Electricity Co, the Gulf's largest utility, has approached France's EDF about taking a minority stake in the French firm's Hinkley Point C nuclear project in Britain, industry sources said.

• US-Saudi
  National Guard Chief Prince Miteb on Hi-Viz U.S. Visit

  The Saudi Arabian Minister responsible for the National Guard starts a high-profile, official visit to the United States today and will meet with President Obama, Defense Secretary Hagel and other senior U.S. officials.

• BBC Shooting
  BBC man’s killer sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia

  Alongside the three people who were sentenced to death, five other defendants were each given 30-year jail terms at the special criminal court in Riyadh. In addition to shooting the BBC crew, the alleged terror unit was accused of multiple murders in separate attacks in Riyadh and Alkhobar over a period spanning several years.

  • ABC News - Saudi Convicts 8 in Attacks That Killed Foreigners
  • Arab News - Prince Andrew in Saudi Arabia to reinforce ties
• Iran Negotiations
  Iran and US close in on historic nuclear deal at Vienna talks

  Some diplomats describe their work as 95% done, pending political decisions to be made in national capitals over Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium over the next few years, and the sequence in which international sanctions are lifted. Several leading arms-control experts have argued that the residual obstacles are more political than substantial, determined by the need of President Barack Obama’s administration and President Hassan Rouhani’s reformist government in Iran to reassure conservatives at home, rather than by the actual requirements of Iran’s nuclear energy programme or genuine nonproliferation concerns.

  • The Hill - GOP poised to dash Obama’s Iran hopes
  • Middle East Briefing - Washington’s Multiple Channels to Iran as Nuclear Talks Reach “Moment of Truth”
  • Al-Monitor - Congress prepares for final Iran push
• Saudi Nuclear Development
  Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear Envy

  Riyadh is unsurprisingly incensed at any suggestion that it wouldn’t be accorded the same right to enrich uranium that the United States effectively granted to Iran under the interim agreement between those two countries. Sources familiar with the negotiations say that Riyadh has argued that the Gold Standard represents an unacceptable infringement on its national sovereignty, emphasizing that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Saudi Arabia is a signatory, stipulates that countries have a right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

• TASI
  Saudi Arabian Stocks Slip to Lowest Since March as Oil Retreats

  Shares in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, dropped to the lowest level in eight months after oil entered its ninth week of decline.

• Iraqi Army
  Spring Offensive Against ISIS in Iraq ‘Unrealistic’

  Iraq's former defense minister, Abdul Qader Obeidi, says the Iraqi army needs at least a year and a lot of U.S. help to take on the Islamic Stat

  • McClatchy - Dempsey again cites possibility of sending U.S. troops into Iraq combat
  • Washington Post - Is The Next Battle of Mosul The Clash in Which U.S. Troops Will See Combat in Iraq?
  • CNN - Don't forget Iraq's displaced
• ISIS and Saudi Arabia
  Islamic State leader urges attacks in Saudi Arabia: speech

  Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech purported to be in his name on Thursday, saying his self-declared caliphate was expanding there and in four other Arab countries. Baghdadi also said a U.S.-led military campaign against his group in Syria and Iraq was failing and he called for "volcanoes of jihad" the world over. Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the speech - an audio recording carried on Islamic State-run social media. The voice sounded similar to a previous speech delivered by Baghdadi in July in a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the last time he spoke in public.

  • Informed Comment - Daesh/ ISIL calls for Terror attacks on Saudi Arabia
• Global Oil Markets
  The negative effects of low oil prices – Video

  As oil prices drop, oil exporting countries look for ways to curb their spending policies. CNN's John Defterios report.

• U.S.-Afghanistan
  Marine pullout offers preview of what U.S. leaves behind for Afghan troops

  The Marines’ departure from Leatherneck — the largest base closure to date of the United States’ longest war — offers a detailed look at the decisions U.S. military leaders are making as coalition forces withdraw from Afghanistan. Mindful of Afghan forces’ limitations — and seething over the Islamic State’s seizure of former American military compounds and equipment in Iraq — the forces departing Afghanistan appear to be stripping bases to the basics.

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