MUST-READS

• Yemen
  Houthi shells kill five in Saudi border town

  Bombs fired from territory held by Yemen's Houthi militia into a Saudi Arabian border town killed five people on Wednesday, Saudi officials said, as the Iran-allied group stepped up an apparent retaliation for weeks of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition.

  • LA Times - Airstrikes on Houthi insurgents kill scores near Saudi border
• U.S. - Saudi: Kerry Visit
  Kerry meets with Yemen’s president-in-exile in Saudi Arabia

  Kerry met with Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the Saudi capital after talking with Saudi officials Wednesday night in an effort to bring about a “humanitarian pause” in Yemen’s civil war that would allow aid workers to deliver food, fuel and medicine to trapped civilians.

   
  • Bloomberg - Kerry Arrives in Saudi Arabia to Urge a Pause in Yemen Fighting
• White Land and the TASI
  Saudi Stock Windfall Seen by Tadawul CEO on Real Estate Tax

  The government’s plan to charge fees for undeveloped land may “trigger a flight of capital from real estate into the capital market,” chief executive officer of the Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul Adel Al-Ghamdi said in an e-mailed response to questions Tuesday. “We witnessed the beginnings of this only last week with $2.2 billion of prime real estate being sold off over two consecutive days.”

• King Abdullah Economic City
  Head of $100 Billion High-Tech Saudi City in Town to Meet With Silicon Valley Firms

  King Abdullah Economic City, located an hour from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia’s second largest city), is unique in a lot of ways. It’s a private effort, listed on the Saudi stock exchange with $2.5 billion in paid-up capital. “It’s probably also one of the largest startups,” he said.

• GCC Missile Defense
  Analyst: Middle East Countries Moving Toward Integrated Missile Defense System

  The Arab nations of the Persian Gulf are moving toward creating an integrated regional missile defense system, an analyst with ties to officials in the Middle East said May 4.

• Syria
  Perspective: Why Assad Is Losing

  Considering the immense complexity of the northern Syrian insurgency, the opposition’s gains in Idlib therefore represent an impressive feat. But planning alone did not ensure the victories: The operations also displayed a far improved level of coordination between rival factions, spanning from U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades, to moderate and conservative Syrian Islamists, to al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and several independent jihadist factions. Although this went largely unacknowledged by the groups involved — and while media coverage broadly portrayed the Idlib offensives as “jihadist” or al Qaeda-led — the reality on the ground was that the recent offensive brought together many groups holding very different ideologies.

• Anti-ISIS Campaign: Iraq
  Iraq sends troops to key refinery amid heavy clashes with IS

  Iraq's military spokesman says reinforcements are being rushed to the key Beiji refinery north of Baghdad amid heavy fighting there with Islamic State militants.

• Capital Market Authority
  Euromoney Riyadh: What is the CMA, What about QFI? – Jadaan

  The major restructuring of the Saudi government that accompanied the ascension of King Salman in January brought Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Jadaan into office as President of the Capital Market Authority. This week the new leader of the CMA spoke with Richard Banks at the Euromoney Conference in Riyadh

• Texas Shooting
  Did ISIS Really Mastermind Texas Shooting? Experts Doubtful

  The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria claimed that the gunmen at a Texas cartoon exhibition were “soldiers of the caliphate,” but experts say that it’s still unclear if and what ties really existed.

• Israel - Russia
  Russian Missile Sale to Iran Involves Unseen Deals With Israel

  But behind the public announcements is a little-known web of arms negotiations and secret diplomacy. In recent years, Israel and Russia have engaged in a complex dance, with Israel selling drones to Russia while remaining conspicuously neutral toward Ukraine and hoping to stave off Iranian military development. The dance may not be over.

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