Workers at refineries critical to Iran’s oil and natural gas production are protesting over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody, escalating the crisis faced by Tehran.
Online videos analysed by the Associated Press showed dozens of workers gathered at the refineries in Asaluyeh, about 925 kilometres south of Tehran, on the Arabian Gulf.
The vast complex takes in natural gas from the major offshore natural gasfield that Iran shares with Qatar.
In one video, the gathered workers — some with their faces covered — chant “shameless” and “death to the dictator”.
The chants have featured in protests over Mahsa Amini’s death last month.
The details in the videos correspond to known features of the facility when compared to satellite photos taken on Sunday.
But Iranian officials have presented a different narrative, saying that the oil workers are angered by a dispute over wages and are not protesting against the death of Amini.
Governor Ali Hashemi said some Iranians tried to hijack the workers' protests by chanting anti-government slogans, Reuters reported citing Iran’s Young Journalists Club News (YJC) telegram account.
The demonstrations in Abadan and Asaluyeh are the first time that the unrest surrounding the death of Amini threatened an industry that is critical to the coffers of Iran’s long-sanctioned theocratic government.
Although it remains unclear if other workers will follow, the protests come as demonstrations rage in cities, towns and villages across Iran over the September 16 death of Iranian-Kurdish Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran.
The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 2009 Green Movement protests.
Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating. Subsequent videos have shown the security forces beating and shoving female protesters, including women who have torn off their mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
Crackdown intensifying in Kurdish areas
Meanwhile, Iran intensified its crackdown on Monday in Kurdish areas in the country’s west as protests continue, activists said.
Riot police opened fire on protesters in at least one neighbourhood in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, AP reported.
One video from Sanandaj posted online by a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights showed darkened streets with apparent gunfire going off.
Another showed riot police with shotguns moving in formation, apparently firing at homes.
The New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran posted another video showing what it described as a phalanx of motorcycle-riding security forces moving through Sanandaj.
“They reportedly broke the windows of hundreds of cars in the Baharan neighbourhood,” the centre said.
Iran did not immediately acknowledge the renewed crackdown in Sanandaj. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador over the UK issuing sanctions against members of the country’s morality police and security officials.
The Foreign Ministry called the sanctions “arbitrary and baseless,” while threatening countermeasures against London.
From Tehran and elsewhere, videos have emerged online despite the Iranian authorities blocking internet access.
Videos on Monday showed more university and high-school students demonstrating and chanting, with some women and girls marching through the streets without headscarves as the protests continue into the fourth week.
Amnesty International criticised the Iranian security forces for “using firearms and firing tear gas indiscriminately, including into people’s homes”.
It urged the world to pressure Iran to end the crackdown.
Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, said that “the world is watching what is happening in Iran”.
“These protestors are Iranian citizens, led by women and girls, demanding dignity and basic rights,” Mr Sullivan wrote on Twitter.
“We stand with them, and we will hold responsible those using violence in a vain effort to silence their voices.”
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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.”
