MUST-READS

• Anti-ISIS Strategies
  Defending Italy from the Islamic State

  In 1942, Winston Churchill said that Italy was the “soft underbelly” of Europe and directed Allied invasion efforts there. Today, we are seeing flickers of a similar strategy from the Islamic State.

  • Reuters - Spain arrests eight suspected Islamic militants in dawn raid
• Cybersecurity
  DOD Sees Spending $27.4b in Total on Cybersecurity Through 2020

  Pentagon requests $5.5b for FY16 cyber activities, about $537m over $5b approved this fiscal year by Congress, according to new five-year spending plan.

  • Defense One - Ten Years After ODNI, Why Intelligence Needs More People, Money and Trust
  • Defense One - Is It Time for a Counterinsurgency Approach to the Cyber War Against ISIS?
• GCC Statements
  Arab Gulf states reject Iran’s role in Iraq

  The Gulf Cooperation Council expressed rejection to foreign interference in the Iraqi crisis, in reference to Iran’s direct involvement in Iraq’s war against ISIS, during a meeting held in Riyadh on Thursday

• Iran Missile
  Iran Just Unveiled Its New Long-Range Cruise Missile

  So what’s this new-ish missile really capable of? Quite a lot, actually. The Soumar is in many ways comparable to the Tomahawk. Like the U.S.-built missile, it uses an in-built terrain-matching contour navigation system to fly toward its target while hugging ground features. This gives the missile a means to avoid detection when traveling close to an opponent’s air defenses.

• Syria: Rebel Groups
  Pentagon unsure how to support Syrian rebels

  "The program won't succeed unless they believe themselves to have a reasonable chance of survival," Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. "It was always my advice that we had to come to some conclusion to assure them that they would be protected. Now, the scope and scale of that protection is the part of this that's being actively debated," Dempsey told lawmakers.

  • Al-Arabiya - 'Iranization' of Syria: Why has the conflict lasted so long?
• Anti-ISIS Strategies
  Major piece of Obama anti-IS strategy is stalled

  U.S. military and intelligence officials are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for political reconciliation in Iraq, a key tenet of the Obama administration's strategy to dislodge the Islamic State group and stabilize the country. Senior officials say they are not seeing significant progress by the country's Shiite-led government on its efforts to strike a bargain with Iraq's deeply alienated Sunni population, from which the extremist force is drawing money and personnel.

  • Washington Post - Battle escalates as Iraqi forces try to recapture Tikrit from Islamic State
• Yemen: Houthis
  Yemen’s Houthis hold exercises near Saudi border

  Thousands of Shi'ite Muslim Houthi fighters, who control much of Yemen, held military exercises near the border with top oil exporter and Sunni power Saudi Arabia on Thursday, a Houthi commander said, adding to fears Yemen's chaos could deepen. The rise to power of the Iran-backed Houthis since September has deepened divisions in Yemen's already complex web of political and religious allegiances, and left it increasingly cut off from the world.

  • The National - Yemen talks in Saudi Arabia open to the Houthis, says GCC
• Ports
  Discovering Business | Saudi Port Expansion

  There are nine principal ports in Saudi Arabia, of which five, Dhiba, Yanbu Commercial Port, Yanbu Industrial Port, Jeddah and Jazan on the Red Sea coast, with the other four, Ras Al-Khair, Jubail Industrial Port, Jubail Commercial Port and Dammam, on the Persian Gulf

• Diabetes
  UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt among top 10 countries with high diabetes rates

  Despite the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt being among the top 10 most prevalent countries for diabetes, the vast majority of those surveyed are still using white sugar as part of their daily diet, a Nielsen study commissioned by Splenda low calorie sweetener revealed.

• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
  Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan to join Beijing-backed development bank

  Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan will join 24 other nations as founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China's Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. The entry, which China said was approved unanimously by the other founding members of the China-backed multilateral lender, brings the total number of founder nations intending to join the $50-billion bank to 26, according to statements published on the ministry's website, www.mof.gov.cn.

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