MUST-READS

• Labor
  Shoura suggests SR2,000 ($533) minimum Saudi wage

  “The proposal aims to raise their pay and address bogus salary and headcount figures,” he said.

• Haia
  Defining the role of Haia is a must

  The concept of a team of volunteers (Hesbah) is as old as the religion of Islam. Those volunteers used to roam streets and were responsible for preventing people from committing any crime. They used to frequent marketplaces to ensure smooth functioning of the market and check any wrongdoing on the part of shoppers and the shopkeepers. It was their responsibility to protect the rights of consumers by ensuring the scales the traders used were not tampered with and nobody was adding water to milk etc.

• U.S.-Saudi Training
  Saudi Arabia Will Grant U.S. Request for Anti-ISIS Training Program

  Saudi Arabia has agreed to an American request to provide a base to train moderate Syrian opposition fighters, American officials said on Wednesday.

  • Newsweek - Saudis Tip-Toe Into the War on ISIS
  • BBC News - Kerry in key Saudi talks on IS
  • SUSRIS - Secretary Kerry in Middle East for Counter-ISIS Consultations
• U.S.-Syria
  Obama orders U.S. airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State

  President Barack Obama told Americans on Wednesday he had authorized U.S. airstrikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in a broad escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State militant group. Obama's decision to launch attacks inside Syria, which is embroiled in a three-year civil war, marked a turnabout for the president, who shied away a year ago from airstrikes to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against his own people.

  • Washington Post - Countering ISIS Will Be Hard in Iraq and Harder in Syria, Officials Say
  • Defense One - Islamic State Unites Congress, But Lawmakers Diverge on the Way Forward
  • Long War Journal - US strategy against Islamic State to mirror counterterrorism efforts in Yemen, Somalia
  • NPR - Opinion Pages Offer Support On Plan To Combat Islamic State
  • The Atlantic - Opinion: Obama's Realization: There's No Way Out of the Middle East
  • WSJ - U.S. to Rely on Local Forces to Fight Islamic State
• Jordan
  US fears Islamic State group attack on Jordan

  While the prospect of the Islamic State prevailing over the well-equipped Jordanian military seems remote, Jordan is vulnerable to both terrorist attacks and internal strife. Its economy is weak, its unofficial unemployment rate is 30 percent, and 1.5 million Syrian refugees are consuming scarce resources and services, U.S. officials and experts say

• Islam
  Saudi Arabia’s clerics condemn IS but preach intolerance

  While Saudi Arabia's official Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam attacks Islamists as heretical and "deviant", many of its most senior and popular clergy preach a doctrine that encourages intolerance against the very groups targeted by IS in Iraq.

• Saudi Business Projects
  Saudi Arabia’s long-term projects market robust, with $55bn forecast to be awarded in 2014

  Of the $134bn-worth of contracts awarded in the GCC last year, about half – $65bn – were placed in Saudi Arabia. This year, some $55bn of projects are expected to be awarded, based on a pipeline of more than $840bn worth of planned and un-awarded projects in kingdom.

• U.S. Public Opinion
  Poll: Public supports strikes in Iraq, Syria; Obama’s ratings hover near his all-time lows – The Washington Post

  Americans overwhelmingly view Islamic State terrorists as a serious threat to vital U.S. interests and, in a significant shift, widely support airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The nation’s increasingly hawkish mood will form part of the backdrop for a speech by President Obama on Wednesday, when he will outline his thinking on how to confront the threat from the Islamic State. Obama’s remarks will come a day after he confers with congressional leaders at the White House about the administration’s planning.

  • Stratfor - Opinion: The Virtue of Subtlety: A U.S. Strategy Against the Islamic State
  • Defense One - Islamic State Dominates the Post-Recess Conversation in Congress
  • CBS News - Obama to outline plan to fight ISIS
  • Military Times - Obama, Congress in legal gray area over powers to fight Islamic State
  • CFR - How the Lessons of Iraq Are Shaping the Fight Against the Islamic State
  • ME Briefing - Opinion: ISIL May Represent a Turning Point for the US Role in the Middle East
• Asian Games
  Women sidelined as Saudi Arabia selects all-male team

  Saudi Arabia has failed to include a single female athlete in its 199-strong team for the upcoming Asian Games in South Korea, saying its women are not sufficiently competitive. The Saudi stance sparked criticism from Human Rights Watch, which condemned its all-male line-up, saying the ultra-conservative state was shutting the door on female athletes, having previously shown signs of wanting to break down barriers.

• Syria's Kurds
  West widens contacts with Syria’s Kurds but suspicion remains

  In Iraq, Kurds are one of the main Western allies against Islamic State. But in Syria, where Kurdish militia have carved out a swathe of northern territory and repeatedly battled against Islamic State during a three-and-a-half year civil war, Kurds have yet to win the West's acceptance as partners. The main Kurdish political party in Syria, the PYD, and its armed wing, the YPG, say they are obvious allies for Western states as the only force with a proven track record of combating Islamic State there. The Kurds are dismissive of the moderate Syrian opposition that has been backed by the West but outgunned by Islamist groups.

  • Aljazeera - Syrian air raids on IS stronghold kill dozens
  • Washington Post - Report: Islamic State has anti-tank weapons taken from Syrian rebels
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