MUST-READS

• Yemen
  Yemen: Power Vacuum In Sana’a Hampers Aid Response

  Following their victory, the Houthis quickly took control of other government facilities. At the same time, political parties endorsed a UN brokered deal that officially brought an end to the fighting. The agreement, signed by the Houthis and major political parties with President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi’s endorsement, called for the creation of a new government, a reduction in fuel prices and granted the Houthis a larger say in governmental decisions.

• 'A New Yemen'
  Khashoggi – 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.

  • Saudi Gazette - GCC demands return of state authority in Yemen
• Price War?
  Oil Prices Continue Decline, Pressured by Saudi Action to Defend Market Share

  But the sudden drop on Thursday was seen as a response to Saudi Arabia’s signaling on Wednesday to the markets that it was more interested in maintaining market share than in defending prices. Saudi Aramco, the national oil company, stunned markets by announcing that it was cutting prices by about $1 a barrel to Asia, the crucial growth market for the Persian Gulf producers, as well as by 40 cents a barrel to the United States.

  • Washington Post - Oil prices are falling — and that’s good for the U.S. and bad for Russia
  • Bloomberg- OPEC Price War Signaled by Saudi Move Risks Deeper Drop
• Qatari Foreign Policy
  The Case Against Qatar

  What Doha saw in the Muslim Brotherhood was a combination of religiosity and efficacy that seemed parallel to its own. Moreover, the Qatari ruling family sought to differentiate itself from competing monarchies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), both of which frown upon political Islam as dangerously power-seeking. It was pragmatism, argues Salah Eddin Elzein, head of the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, a think tank associated with the Qatar-owned satellite network. "Islamists came [to the region] in the 1980s, and Qatar was trying to ally itself with the forces that it saw as those most likely to be the dominant forces for the future."

• Construction
  Saudi firm funding boat-shaped Tunisia hospital project

  Saudi Arabian investors Lalei Al Barakah Est. are backing a project to build a sailing boat-shaped hospital in Tunisia's new Economic City.

• Cuisine in Jeddah
  Eating Out in Jeddah: Saudi Dining & Top Cultural Restaurants

  Jeddah, one of the most easygoing areas in Saudi Arabia, has a long history as an important centre for trade and cultural interchange. The city’s cuisine reflects this, blending the flavours of East and West to delicious effect. Jeddah’s restaurants, done out in elaborate Hijazi décor, make dining in the historic city a delight, so we’ve updated our Jeddah restaurant guide to bring you eight more unmissable venues in Saudi’s best culinary destination.

  • Arab News - Top chefs to compete in Foodex Saudi’s culinary event
• Iraq and Iraqis
  With the rise of Islamic State, Iraq is splintering along religious and ethnic lines

  In the wake of Islamic State’s rise, small religious minorities such as Christians and Yazidis — a group that draws from various religious traditions — have sought refuge in Kurdish areas. Some say they hope to flee the country, never to return. The people left behind in areas captured by the Islamic State will increasingly be “one color,” said Hamed al-Maliki, an Iraqi writer, meaning they will have the same Sunni beliefs and customs.

• Iran Negotiations
  Iran’s UN demand emerges as hitch in nuclear talks

  Western diplomats said if a final nuclear deal is reached, the United States and European Union would quickly waive and then lift unilateral, proliferation-related economic sanctions on Iran that would provide a rapid windfall to Iran's economy. (However, the US trade embargo on Iran, enacted after Iran's 1979 seizure of the US embassy and hostage crisis, would remain in place, a senior US official said.) A new UN Security Council resolution outlining the deal and what steps all sides had agreed on would also be passed, western diplomat said.

  • National Interest - Why Iran Can’t Walk Away from Nuclear Talks So Easily
  • Alemeiner - Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Threatens That Final Nuclear Deal May Not Be Reached
• Da'ish
  The Economist explains: The many names of ISIS (also known as IS, ISIL, SIC and Da’ish)

  There is a long history of pinning unpleasant-sounding names on unpleasant people. Rather as the term Nazi caught on in English partly because of its resonance with words such as "nasty", Da'ish rolls pleasurably off Arab tongues as a close cousin of words meaning to stomp, crush, smash into, or scrub. Picking up on this, France has officially adopted the term for government use, with its foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, explaining that Da'ish has the added advantage of not granting the group the dignity of being called a state.

• Yemen Unrest
  Saudi Arabia warns Yemen violence could threaten global security

  In some of his strongest language about Yemen to date, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the U.N. General Assembly that hopes for an end to the crisis had been wrecked by what he suggested was the Houthis' failure to honor the deal. "The lack of implementation of the security annexe of the agreement and the lack of implementation of the agreement itself in the required manner by the Houthi group has dashed these hopes," he said in a speech circulated by the Saudi mission at the United Nations in New York.

  • Arab News - Yemen cries for help
  • Huffington Post - Saudi Arabia's a high risk strategy on two fronts
  • Washington Post - Al-Qaida-Linked Militants in Yemen Fire Rocket Toward U.S. Embassy
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