MUST-READS

• Office Space
  Soft opening scheduled for King Abdullah Financial District

  The article said: “A big problem is its size. The Saudi economy may be doing well on the back of high oil prices but not so well that its businesses could easily digest all the extra property.” It added that the new “financial district has thrice as many high-end office spaces as the rest of Riyadh. In other words, even if every company in the city’s plusher offices moved to the new district it would still be two-thirds empty.”

• Afghanistan
  Final stage of leaving an Army base in Afghanistan

  Forward Operating Base Lightning is in its final days. The small base near the city of Gardez in Paktia province, Afghanistan, is down to its final stages as an operational hub for U.S. troops, set to end combat operations in December. Lightning itself is attached to the considerably larger FOB Thunder, home to around 4,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel. How does a FOB wither? It starts with the luxuries.

  • Washington Post - In Afghanistan, U.N. fears for the safety of its staff amid growing threats of violence
• Saudi-Iraq
  Saudi Arabia to reopen embassy in Iraq

  Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Osama Nugali said on Saturday that the decision was made following a meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah earlier this year, English-language newspaper Arab News reported.

• Muslim Brotherhood
  Qatar expels leading Muslim Brotherhood figures: sources

  A number of high-profile Muslim Brotherhood members currently residing in Qatar are set to leave the small Gulf state, a development that may herald a breakthrough in attempts to heal the rift between Doha and its neighbors. However, some aspects of this development remain murky, with different sources offering conflicting accounts of the reasons behind the Brotherhood members’ departure. While some informed sources said that Qatar had asked the men to leave, a Qatari diplomatic source told Asharq Al-Awsat they had opted to leave of their own free will.

  • IBT - Qatar Buckles Under Pressure From Saudi Arabia, UAE; Expels Muslim Brotherhood Leaders
  • ABC News/AP - Qatar Expels Egypt Muslim Brotherhood Leaders
• Power
  Saudi-Egypt electricity grid project to soon be finalized

  The Saudi-Egyptian Electricity Grid project is close to being finalized, Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Electricity and Co-Generation Regulatory Authority (ECRA) Dr. Abdullah Al-Shehri said.

• 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

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