CULF 3331: "Middle Eastern Revolutions"

15-year plan includes diversification, privatisation of state assets, tax increases and creating a $2tn sovereign wealth fund

The Saudi cabinet approves plans to try to move the country away from its dependency on oil profits, including creating a giant sovereign wealth fund.

Syria and Russia have signed agreements worth 850 million euros to restore infrastructure in the Arab nation, Russia's RIA news agency quoted Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki as saying on Monday.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants have shelled the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing 16 people and injuring 86, state news agency SANA reports, as the fragile ceasefire is being threatened by resurging violence. A source at Aleppo police command told SANA on Monday that shells fired by al-Nusra fighters landed in Aleppo's al-Sulaimaniyeh neighborhood, claiming lives of four, three of them children, and injuring 19 others, many in critical conditions.

Syria and Russia are considering the possibility of setting up joint banks to carry out transactions between the two countries, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Halqi told Sputnik. "The Russian-Syrian business council has expressed a wish to open a joint Russian-Syrian bank with an equity participation of 50 percent by each side.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Syria crisis by phone on Monday, expressing their full support for Syria peace talks in Geneva, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Hezbollah fighters and the Syrian army thwarted an attack by ISIS militants on their posts near Lebanon's border overnight Monday, the Hezbollah-affiliated War Media Center said."

"But Hezbollah appears to be the only military force capable of effectively fighting against ISIS - in the northeast of the country, on the border with Syria, and elsewhere. It is also the only organization providing a reliable social net to those hundreds of thousands of poor Lebanese citizens"

"Activists in the UK have launched a campaign to have Hezbollah officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the British government. The Israel-Britain Alliance is leading the campaign to have Hezbollah officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Nearly 20 different organisations, both Jewish and Christian, have thrown their weight behind the initiative so far."

"Lebanese Hezbollah is fighting the ISIS terrorist group, but the West and Saudi Arabia apparently consider Hezbollah, not the ISIS, to be the major menace to their geopolitical interests."

"In a new video purportedly released by the Islamic State in "Wilayat al-Fallujah," Iraq, an ISIS militant executes a man with a handgun after delivering a threatening message to Egyptian President al-Sisi. "

"Over 50 mass graves have been found so far in different areas of Iraq formerly controlled by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, BBC reported Friday, citing a United Nations envoy."

"Four jihadi commanders from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) were killed in northwestern Iraq as a result of airstrikes by the US-led coalition's warplanes and ground operations by the Iraqi army"

"U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria killed 48 Islamic State militant group (ISIS) fighters on Saturday, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting the Turkish military. F-16 and A-10 warplanes killed 44 members of the militant group and injured others in Harjalah, Delha, Baragitah and Hawar Kilis, it said. Four more members of the hardline Sunni group were killed in separate airstrikes in the Karakopru region. Gun installations and barracks were also destroyed in that attack, it said. "