France, Britain and Germany will be watchful of nuclear discussions between the US and Iran to ensure they take account of European interests, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.
“We will be vigilant, along with our British and German friends and partners, to ensure that any [US-Iran] negotiations that may take place comply with our security interests with regard to Iran's nuclear programme,” Mr Barrot said as he arrived for an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.
The EU was not asked to take part in the indirect US-Iran talks that took place last weekend in Oman despite the bloc leading diplomatic engagement with Iran since 2006. Both the US and Iran described them as constructive and they are scheduled to continue on Saturday.
A second round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran will be held in Oman's Muscat, Iran's state news agency Irna said on Monday, quoting Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei. EU officials had earlier said the talks would take place in Rome.
You really have to take action against that policy of just picking people off the streets
EU diplomat
“We are happy that these negotiations are taking place,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp. “We believe that Iran should not become a nuclear weapon state. But the best thing is if we can achieve that through negotiations. Those negotiations are taking place now and they will continue next Saturday."
The EU hopes to co-ordinate with the US to have a "unified approach" on Iran, said the bloc's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas. France, Germany and the UK – known as the E3 – are the only European nations that were party to a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The deal is politically defunct since the US's withdrawal in 2018 during President Donald Trump's first term.
"We are constantly talking with the E3 countries what the position could be, because the deadline of the snapback is really approaching us," Ms Kallas said, referring to the possible reinstatement of sanctions when the JCPOA expires in October.
"We also need to discuss this with the United States," Ms Kallas said at a press conference, in response to a question from The National. "It's important to have really unified approach to this, because nobody wants to see Iran developing a nuclear weapon. So we are concentrating our efforts on that."
Hostage diplomacy sanctioned
The EU also announced on Monday more sanctions against seven Iranian officials with the aim of targeting the country’s so-called hostage diplomacy against westerners. People hit with sanctions included judges at the courts of appeal of Tehran and Shiraz as well as the head of Evin Prison in the Iranian capital, Hedayatollah Farzadi. Shiraz Prison was also listed.
“It was about time,” Mr Barrot said. “Because the conditions in which some of our French and European compatriots are detained are shameful and comparable to torture under international law, and some of them are deprived of consular protection.”
Speaking ahead of the meeting, a senior EU diplomat said “Iran's hostage policy is a huge concern among a long list of concerns that we have when it comes to Iran".
“At one point, you really have to take action against that policy of just picking people off the streets, throwing them in jail just to get something from some European member states,” the source said.
“That's what we're doing. We are actually listing those, or some of those that we deem responsible for that policy – just as an indication how seriously we take this, because that's not a policy that should exist between civilised nations.”
A number of Europeans have been arrested in the past years by Iran and released in exchange for Iranian nationals detained in Europe. Most are detained at Evin.
French citizen Olivier Grondeau was released by Iranian authorities last month. He had been imprisoned in Shiraz in 2022 as he was travelling across the world. But schoolteacher Cecile Koehler and her companion, retired teacher Jacques Paris, remain in detention.
A Swedish diplomat working for the EU, Johann Floderus, was released last June in exchange for Iranian Hamid Nouri, who had been serving a sentence in a Swedish prison for war crimes in the Iran-Iraq war.
Mr Floderus had been arrested at Tehran airport in April 2022 as he returned from holiday with friends, and was charged with crimes that carried the death penalty. They included security, collaboration with Israel and “corruption on Earth” charges.
In announcing France’s recognition of Palestinian statehood at a conference being co-hosted with Saudi Arabia in June, President Emmanuel Macron also highlighted this week the need to take a firm stand against Iran. There is a view that Iran’s anti-Israel activities in the Middle East will continue to spread without a revival of efforts to implement a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
More on animal trafficking
Company%20profile
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Disability on screen
Empire — neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis; bipolar disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Rosewood and Transparent — heart issues
24: Legacy — PTSD;
Superstore and NCIS: New Orleans — wheelchair-bound
Taken and This Is Us — cancer
Trial & Error — cognitive disorder prosopagnosia (facial blindness and dyslexia)
Grey’s Anatomy — prosthetic leg
Scorpion — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety
Switched at Birth — deafness
One Mississippi, Wentworth and Transparent — double mastectomy
Dragons — double amputee
