Exclusive: US envoy for Syria Joel Rayburn to leave position

US special envoy for Syria Joel Rayburn is leaving his position, US sources confirmed to The National.

Mr Rayburn is one of the main architects of the Syria policy in the Trump administration, having served as senior director for Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at the National Security Council from January 2017 to July 2018.

From there he was as special envoy at the State Department for Syria.

In November, Mr Rayburn became the acting envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition after the departure of James Jeffrey.

US sources told The National that Mr Rayburn will leave his position shortly, as president-elect Joe Biden is starting to assemble a new, "more cohesive" team on Syria.

Some have said Mr Rayburn would have chosen to stay in the new administration but it was not possible under the Biden team, because of policy and personnel differences.

Mr Rayburn confirmed his departure to The National, saying that it is more due to a routine change during the transition to a new administration than anything else.

“This is a normal rotation of personnel that happens during a transition from one administration to another,” Mr Rayburn said.

The State Department was not immediately available for comment.

He last week told The National that the Trump administration's Syria policy had bipartisan support.

But with Mr Rayburn’s departure and a different team, it is unclear whether Mr Biden will continue with Mr Trump's policy.

During his campaign, the president-elect heavily criticised Mr Trump’s decision to partially withdraw from Syria in 2019.

Mr Biden told the Des Moines Register that the decision gave ISIS "a new lease on life by forcing the Kurds to defend themselves against Turkey instead of fighting ISIS remnants".

His team is expected to increase support to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

On Friday, Mr Biden appointed former diplomat and Pentagon official Brett McGurk as his White House co-ordinator for the Middle East.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Exclusive: US envoy for Syria Joel Rayburn to leave position

Rayburn is one of the main architects of the Trump administration’s Syria policy