MUST-READS

• Economy
  Economic indicators point to Saudi Arabia’s sustained growth

  Saudi Arabia’s economic indicators last July point toward a sustained developmental growth in the Kingdom, Jadwa Investment said in its Saudi Chartbook for this month. It said the economic data for July was strong with the non-oil PMI expanding at the fastest rate since September 2012. Consumer spending also remained robust.

• Finance
  Emirates NBD Planning To Expand Saudi Operations

  “There’s a lot of quite interesting countries within the MENA, and one place we would like to get much bigger in is Saudi Arabia. That’s an obvious one for us – since it is biggest economy in the region. We have a large branch there, with 250 people, and we are the only UAE bank that has a fully-fledged branch in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

• Islamic State
  Opinion: Why ISIS Is Our Problem

  It is not yet clear that ISIS will endure as a menace. Fast-moving extremist conquerors sometimes have trouble holding their ground. ISIS has promised to govern as effectively as it intimidates, but its talent lies in extortion and ethnic cleansing, not in sanitation and job creation. It is vulnerable to revolt from within.

  • Defense One - US Strike Against Al-Shabab Leader Reflects Obama’s Counterterrorism Strategy
  • Navy Times - 350 More Troops Assigned to U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
  • Daily Beast - After Steven Sotloff Murder, Congress Demands a Vote on Obama's ISIS War
  • AFP - Iraqi Forces Regain Control of Key Road to Baghdad After Breaking Siege
  • WSJ - Protests Shut Down Iraqi Parliament
  • Lobelog - Building an Unlikely Coalition Against ISIS
• Foreign Jihadis
  Syria’s foreign jihadis: Where do they come from?

  More than 11,000 people have traveled from abroad to fight in Syria, officials suggest, although some have gone back home again. They ally themselves with different factions, and sometimes change loyalties as groups merge, disband or change allegiances. Naturally, countries with bigger Muslim populations tend to send the largest number of fighters.

• Syria
  Philippine peacekeepers rescued in Syria’s Golan Heights

  Thirty-two Philippine peacekeepers trapped by rebels in the Syrian Golan Heights have been rescued, the UN says. A UN spokesperson said the "situation on the ground is calm but tense", without providing further details.

  • Reuters - Record 4.1 million in Syria got food aid in August, U.N. says
  • The HIll - Poll: U.S. Majority Backs Airstrikes in Syria
  • BBC Video - How did British Citizens Obtain Travel Documents to Syria?
• MENA
  Pentagon set to open second drone base in Niger as it expands operations in Africa

  The Pentagon is preparing to open a drone base in one of the remotest places on Earth: an ancient caravan crossroads in the middle of the Sahara.

  • Washington Post - U.S. carries out counterterrorism strike in Somalia
• Haia
  Briton Man and Saudi Wife Scuffle with Religious Police

  Eyewitnesses told Al-Hayat that the victim named Peter Haworth was in one of the malls with his wife when several members of the religious police started pursuing him till the cashier’s counter, which was manned by a Saudi woman.

• Syria
  U.S. Identifies Citizens Joining Rebels in Syria

  American intelligence and law enforcement agencies have identified nearly a dozen Americans who have traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the militant group that the Obama administration says poses the greatest threat to the United States since Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

  • Al Jazeera - Obama admits 'no strategy' on IS in Syria
  • BBC - UN demands peacekeepers' release
  • WSJ - U.S. Lawmakers Step Up Calls for Obama to Outline Iraq, Syria Strategy
  • NYT - Obama Urges Calm in Face of Crises in Ukraine and Syria
• ISIS
  Iraq and Syria pose Saudi dilemma – failed states or Iran proxies

  What the Al Saud dynasty most wants in both countries is a stable government with strong Sunni representation that could act as a bulwark both against what they see as Iranian expansionism and a Sunni militant ideology that threatens their own rule.

  • Washington Post - Fareed Zakaria: A second Sunni Awakening?
  • Washington Post - Ignatius: Can Saudi Arabia help combat the Islamic State?
• Golan Heights
  Syrian rebels seize Golan Heights border crossing

  Rebels aided by al Qaeda-linked militants seized control of the only border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday. The capture of the Quneitra crossing by Syrian rebels, including members of the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, represents a new dynamic in a war long feared not only for its deadly effects inside Syria but for threatening to widen into a destabilizing regional conflict.

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