MUST-READS

• Kingdom Tower
  Saudi Kingdom Tower buys world’s largest crane

  With the tower’s foundation now in place, vertical, above-ground construction commenced in September. Plans call for the first ten floors to be completed by the end of the year. The Kingdom Tower features 170 stories, seven stories of which will be allocated for the five-star Four Seasons Hotel offering 200 rooms and121 luxury serviced apartments, and seven stories for offices.

• Golan Heights
  UN’s flight marks new era on Israel-Syria front

  "Their mandate is just not relevant anymore," said Stephane Cohen, a former Israeli military liaison officer with UNDOF. "They are there to oversee an agreement between two countries — Israel and Syria — and in practice there is no Syria anymore." That endangers a status quo that — despite a formal state of war between Israel and Syria — is widely regarded as convenient.

• Information Technology
  Government IT spending fuels Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s innovation economy

  Overall IT spending in the Kingdom - the Middle East's largest IT market - is set grow by 23 percent from US$ 11.5 billion in 2014 to US$ 14.2 billion in 2017 according to IDC's report 'Saudi Arabia Vertical Markets 2013-2017 IT Spending Forecast'. Government will be the fastest-growing vertical in this period, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.9 percent, according to IDC. Guiding investment is the Kingdom's Ninth Development Plan, which projects a 27 percent increase in government spending from SAR 150 billion in 2009 to SAR 191 billion in 2014.

• Women Driving
  Saudi businesswoman and member of a human rights group fined for driving herself to hospital

  A female member of a Saudi human rights organisation was reportedly fined by police after she drove herself to hospital. Aliyah Al Farid, a businesswoman and member of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), suffers from a chronic condition which means she is occasionally forced to visit hospital.

  • Saudi Gazette - Reader's Debate: Let women drive in Saudi Arabia
• US-Saudi
  Renewing Vows With Saudi Arabia

  Nevertheless, it's unclear what role, if any, Saudi Arabia will play in the U.S.-led military campaign against ISIS in Iraq. It has already offered humanitarian assistance to Iraq. However, Iran’s backing of the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish regional government’s militias makes it politically unpalatable for Riyadh to assume a major role in Iraq. Despite signs of an opening for improved relations between the two countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran are still supporting opposing sides in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. In addition, Maliki’s repeated -- and largely unsubstantiated -- claims that Saudi Arabia supports ISIS could make Saudi military involvement politically costly for Abadi.

• Anti-ISIS PR
  US public diplomacy attempts to confront Islamic State

  Stengel is the latest in a series of political appointees — who include former Madison Avenue executives, domestic campaign advisers and former journalists — to try to devise breakthrough messaging with an audience prone to conspiracy theories and often angry or disappointed with US policies. Among those who have toiled in the job since 9/11: Charlotte Beers, best known for marketing Uncle Ben’s Rice, and Karen Hughes, a close adviser to George W. Bush whose efforts to promote women’s rights in Saudi Arabia fell flat when women there rejected her comments as patronizing.

• Energy
  Obama makes climate moves ahead of UN summit

  The Obama administration readied its ammunition on Tuesday ahead of next week's United Nations climate summit in New York. President Obama will attend the summit and the administration is eager to show 125 other countries that the U.S. can lead on climate change.

• US Strategy in Iraq and Syria
  The Campaign Against the Islamic State

  A combination of airpower and Iraqi ground forces is at least an uncertain possibility in Iraq, but Syria will remain an enduring mess. The United States, its allies, the region, and the world will have to live with the reality that some form of Jihadism and violent Islamist extremism will persist regardless of what happens to the Islamic State. Moreover, they must be prepared to live with the fact that Jihadism and violent Islamist extremism will remain a far broader problem throughout the region.

  • WSJ - Islamic State Funds Push Into Syria and Iraq With Labyrinthine Oil-Smuggling Operation
  • CSM - Islamic State 101: Why are Arab countries so reluctant to help?
  • Al Monitor - Do Syrians support foreign intervention against IS?
  • Foreign Affairs - State of Confusion
  • AFP - The Reluctant Posse
  • Washington Post - The apocalyptic magazine the Islamic State uses to recruit and radicalize foreigners
• MENA Markets
  Saudi, UAE and Egypt in focus at investment talks

  The debate about the resurgence of the MENA region took center stage at the Emirates Stadium as institutional investors from 27 countries with aggregate assets under management in excess of $8 trillion gather alongside senior management from over 70 of the largest and most actively traded companies in the MENA region for the opening session of the conference — the largest MENA-focused investment conference in the United Kingdom.

• Anti-ISIS Coalition
  Opinion: A Coalition of Uncertainty

  The situation confronting Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry is considerably murkier, to say the least. The United States is not just herding cats, it is herding wolves, rabbits, chameleons, and maybe a few sheep.

  • Bloomberg - U.S. Expands Airstrikes on Islamic State Targets in Iraq
  • AP - Tiny Qatar Plays Outsize Role in US War Strategy
  • AP - Turkey mulls 'buffer zone' against Jihadist group
  • NYT - Kerry Says U.S. Is Open to Talking to Iran, Even as Ayatollah Is Dismissive
  • Washington Post - ISIS Strategy Lacks Firepower
  • Defense One - Obama’s Dramatic Reversal on Bush’s Laws of War
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