Egypt is open to establishing ties with the new rulers in Damascus and has communicated its expectations to Syria’s leadership in a step towards building trust, sources told The National.
Cairo sees the replacement of President Bashar Al Assad's regime by rebels with Islamist roots as a seismic change in the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East as the region is ravaged by wars and political upheavals.
“Syria is understandably giving Egypt a lot to worry about. It is an important country that impacts the Arab security order. It cannot be ignored,” said Michael Hanna, a New York-based Middle East expert.
Damascus fell to the rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham in December, ending Syria's more than five decades of Assad family rule. HTS is mainly made up of groups from the extremist organisation Jabhat Al Nusra, which was linked to al Qaeda. It broke those ties with al Qaeda in 2016 after a purge by the group's leader, Syria's newly declared President Ahmad Al Shara, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani.
Thus, the frosty relations between Syria and Egypt are to be expected. The nation's general-turned-president Abdel Fattah El Sisi led the ousting of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi nearly 12 years ago and has since made zero tolerance for political Islam the defining foundation of his rule.
Egypt is mainly worried about its home-grown extremists and the possibility of reviving the now-suppressed insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and attracting foreign jihadists. But to thaw relations with Damascus, it has presented Syria's new government with a list of demands, according to the sources, who have knowledge of the matter.
These demands include the handover of extremists wanted in Egypt to face terrorism charges, along with others convicted of terrorist attacks and sentenced to death or life in absentia, they said.
Egypt has expressed alarm through diplomatic channels that wanted Egyptian extremists have been assimilated into Syria's new army, with some given high officer ranks, and that a wanted extremist publicly called for the ousting of President El Sisi's government.
Cairo also wants the new Syrian authorities to guarantee that they will do everything within their powers to prevent hundreds of detained ISIS extremists leaving Syria and try to infiltrate Egypt and reignite an Islamist insurgency that was put down around 2020 after years of bloodshed.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar – two nations that swiftly moved to embrace the new order in Syria – are playing a pivotal diplomatic role in narrowing the gap between Cairo and Damascus, the sources affirmed.
Congratulatory message
In a symbolically significant move, President El Sisi sent a congratulatory message to Mr Al Shara last week after his appointment as president. However, the message – the first public contact between the two leaders – read like a formality. Egypt had earlier recognised the new regime in Syria and allowed the Syrian embassy in Cairo to fly the “revolution flag”.
Underlining the tension between Egypt and the rulers in Damascus, Syria's new Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani did not include Egypt in his first overseas tour in the role. Instead he visited only Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan last month. The exclusion of Egypt belies Cairo's regional weight and the history that binds the two nations.
Egypt and Syria merged into the short-lived United Arab Republic in 1958. Fifteen years later, they secretly planned and executed a simultaneous attack against Israel to ignite the 1973 Middle East war, a defining moment in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Another reason for Cairo's willingness to build a relationship with Syria's new order is to counter any attempt by other countries to build a long-term influence over Syria while the country is being rebuilt.
“With Al Assad gone, Iran's influence in Syria and Lebanon has been significantly weakened. That fulfils Egypt's long-standing wish to see Iran out of the Arab Middle East,” said one of the sources.
“But engaging the new regime in Syria by Egypt and other Arab powerhouses is pivotal to stop another non-Arab regional power from gaining leverage in Damascus," added the source, alluding to the vast influence Turkey wields in post-Assad Syria.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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