Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Thursday hosted a three-way summit with the king of Jordan and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Cairo's latest attempt to restart long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Cairo summit was preceded by separate meetings between the Egyptian leader and King Abdullah II and Mr Abbas.
During the summit, the three leaders sought to "co-ordinate positions and visions on a host of topics related to the Palestinian issue", according to a statement issued by Mr El Sisi’s media office.
Mr El Sisi said progress in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could come only after Palestinian factions set aside their differences.
"The realisation of the Palestinian people's hopes for an independent state will not come except after unifying ranks and ending the long-time divisions between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," the Egyptian president said.
The militant group Hamas in 2007 expelled from Gaza representatives of the moderate, West Bank-based Palestinian Authority led by Mr Abbas.
Hamas has been the sole ruler of the Mediterranean coastal strip since then as differences between the two sides deepened. Repeated attempts by Egypt to reconcile the two factions have failed. Egypt, however, has mediated an end to several rounds of violence in Gaza between Hamas and the Israelis.
Mr El Sisi's office said the summit "emphasised the need to integrate efforts by partners and brothers to revive the peace process and resume negotiations on the basis of legitimate international resolutions".
US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in 2014.
Thursday’s summit followed a flurry of diplomatic activity involving Egypt, Jordan and Israel to find a formula acceptable to the Palestinians and Israelis to resume direct negotiations.
The intensified diplomatic contacts are rooted in large part in the hope that the departure in June of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for more than a decade, could offer an opportunity to revive peace efforts.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met King Abdullah in Amman. The Jordanian monarch later met US President Joe Biden in the White House, where he raised the issue of Palestinian-Israeli talks.
In an interview with CNN, King Abdullah said he was encouraged after his meeting with the Israeli leader. “We really have to get back to the [negotiating] table,” he said.
The king met the Palestinian president in Amman soon after his return from Washington. During that meeting, Jordan’s state news agency said the monarch “affirmed the need to intensify international efforts to achieve a just peace”.
Egypt, for its part, has shown an appetite for effecting movement in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks since it successfully mediated an end to an 11-day war in the summer between Israel and Hamas.
Cairo has since quietly tried to cement the cessation of hostilities between the two sides, reconcile rival Palestinian factions and press ahead with a comprehensive reconstruction of the coastal strip.
The Cairo summit comes amid signs of what may be relative easing of tension between Mr Abbas's government and the Israelis. Israel's Defence Minister Benny Gantz travelled on Sunday to the Palestinian self-rule area in the West Bank for talks with the Palestinian leader, the highest-level meeting between the two sides in years.
However, Prime Minister Bennett, a nationalist who opposes Palestinian statehood, said the meeting was "routine".
"There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one," a source close to the Israeli leader told Reuters the day after the meeting.
But Israeli officials said on Monday that the government would lend the cash-starved Palestinian Authority $150 million.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan
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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.”
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
