Tensions between Lebanon’s Druze community and Hezbollah came close to erupting into violence following a series of tit-for-tat incidents, after a mob of Druze villagers in the country’s south seized a Hezbollah missile-launching vehicle on Friday morning.
In dramatic footage published to social media, a crowd of furious Druze villagers in Chouya in the district of Hasbaya are seen stopping the launcher, and yelling at a bearded Hezbollah member, believed to have been driving it.
In the video, the man appears petrified as he cowers in the back of a vehicle. Dozens of Druze men surround and threaten him, shouting that they were fearful their village could be targeted by Israel in response to the militant group’s deployment.
The villagers subsequently handed him over to the Lebanese Army but his detainment didn't last long. In a video released late on Friday evening, he is seen receiving a hero’s welcome as he returns home.
The incident came just hours after Hezbollah launched 19 rockets at Israel, the militant group’s heaviest barrage since the war in 2006. Hezbollah said the attacks were in response to Israeli jets striking positions in Lebanon in the early hours of Friday morning.
The footage prompted supporters of Hezbollah in the southern city of Saida to expel Druze vegetable sellers from the central market.
In response to the expulsion, a group of Shiite men travelling from the Beqaa valley – a Hezbollah heartland, were stopped and threatened on a road in the town of Aley, a witness in the town told The National.
Speaking to The National on Friday evening, Druze leader Walid Jumblat said he was mediating between the community and Hezbollah.
“We need calm,” he said. “It wasn't the moment to fire rockets near a Druze village towards Israeli positions.”
The interception of the missiles was an unprecedented move in a part of the country where Hezbollah hold an unquestionable military dominance. Hanin Ghaddar, Friedmann Fellow at The Washington Institute's Geduld Program and an expert of Shia politics, said it represented a major threat to this dominance.
A challenge to Hezbollah's authority
“It’s becoming a big challenge for Hezbollah, and its more than the economic situation, there is a fundamental issue with the dynamic," she told The National.
“The level of support for these Druze people, the way that people were supporting them was unbelievable. Hezbollah used to be the heroes when they fired at Israel, now these guys who stopped them are the heroes."
"There’s a nationwide feeling that Hezbollah needs to stop doing this. The more people realise that their livelihood is more important than anything else, the more they will start standing up to Hezbollah.”
The Lebanese Army later announced they had arrested several of the individuals involved in firing the rockets, while a rare statement from Hezbollah also attempted to defuse tensions, as did a speech by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah himself on Saturday night. The group said it was careful to not expose the Lebanese people to harm from “its work".
The original confrontation in Hasbaya was the second incident in barely a week in which the Iran-backed group had clashed with one of Lebanon’s myriad other ethnic groups.
Four people were killed last Sunday, after gunfire erupted at the funeral procession of a Hezbollah member killed the day before. The dispute, with the Sunni Arab tribe, also threatened to boil over into further clashes, with the army being deployed to the area to ease tensions.
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.”
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