Fighting has flared up between rebel brigades aligned with Ankara and a Kurdish militia in Aleppo governorate, a once sleepy front in the Syrian civil war that could be impacted by a Turkish drive to mend relations with President Bashar Al Assad.
At least one fighter from Tahrir Al Sham, an Al Qaeda offshoot that has channels with Turkey, has been killed in tit-for-tat attacks in the past 72 hours, with undetermined casualties from the SDF, a Kurdish-dominated militia, local sources said.
Tensions increased on the rebel-Kurdish militia front in Aleppo, which borders Turkey, after a car bomb at a roadblock near the rebel city of Azaz last week reportedly killed at least eight people. No one claimed responsibility, although many suspected the SDF.
A senior member of the Syrian opposition to Mr Assad told The National from Istanbul that half those dead were Turkish security personnel, although there was no announcement from Ankara.
Ensuing rebel attacks on the SDF constitute “Turkey's response to the Azaz car bomb”, the source said.
Turkey carved out a border zone in 2015 to check territorial gains by the Kurdish militias, who had managed to secure both US and Russian support, although Washington streamlined the militias under the SDF banner in 2015.
Failaq Al Sham, a Turkish-sponsored brigade linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, said it had foiled an SDF “infiltration attempt” on the Kabashin Axis on Sunday.
The axis is a military term for the front between the SDF enclave of Tal Rifat and the rebel-held area of Afrin, west of the provincial capital Aleppo city.
A “well-executed trap”, in which Failaq Al Sham used machine guns and artillery, caused “a number of deaths” among the SDF, Failaq Al Sham said.
Fighting also occurred overnight on Monday in Jibreen, near Azaz, but no casualties were reported, the sources said.
The Aleppo governorate is divided between Mr Assad's loyalists, the SDF, and rebel auxiliaries aligned with Turkey. Survival of the three sides has largely depended on the outside powers influencing the Syrian civil war: Iran, Russia, Turkey and the US.
Although the SDF was set up by Washington, Russian support enabled it to overrun rebel areas and establish a Kurdish-run enclave in Tal Rifat in 2016. Agreements between Moscow and Ankara ensured that hostilities involving the Tal Rifat Kurds remained at a relative minimum.
In the same year, the SDF helped Russian and regime forces, as well as pro-Iranian Shiite militias to capture the city of Aleppo. The SDF has safe passage through territory held by the regime to a larger zone it controls in eastern Syria, and which is also patrolled by US forces.
One opposition military source in Aleppo said Tahrir Al Sham and its allies “had little choice except to launch the operations” against the SDF, to maintain ties with Turkey.
This is despite positive Turkish moves in recent months responding to a Russian initiative to end hostilities between Damascus and Ankara.
On Monday, pressure from Turkey led to the reopening of a crossing in Aleppo, allowing goods to pass between rebel-held areas and territories under the authority of Damascus, according to several opposition members.
Crowds angry at the proposed rapprochement had overrun the rebel side of the crossing last month, forcing to close only days after it had opened.
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.”
